BLM's wild horse facility safe from blaze

BUTTERFIELD CANYON — With numbers boosted tremendously because of a recent gather east of Delta, the wild horses and burros at the Bureau of Land Management facility in Butterfield Canyon remain safe from the Machine Gun fire in Herriman.

"We've had dozens and dozens of phone calls from the public offering to help," said Gus Warr, the Utah manager of the BLM's wild horse and burro program.

"We've appreciated the offers, but thankfully we have not needed the help. I do not know how we would have moved more than 500 wild mustangs out of here," in the event evacuation was necessary, Warr said.

When the fire erupted Sunday, Warr said the facility had BLM engines on standby as a precaution and employees stayed through the night to keep watch over the animals.

The facility has about 520 wild horses and burros as the result of a roundup held in the Confusion Herd Management Area, precipitated by the need to control populations on the range through removal and the administration of fertility drugs to mares.

That roundup added 230 more animals to the facility, which is the central hub for the Utah BLM's program.

Warr said the fire remains about four miles southeast of the canyon and, so far, has had little if any impact on its equine residents.

"There's been no effect on the animals; no smoke, no embers from the sky," Warr said.

— Amy Joi O'Donoghue