Wild horse adoption plan dropped

RANGELY, Colo., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The Bureau of Land Management has dropped for now its plan to remove 120 wild horses from a Colorado tract to allow for natural-gas drilling.

The federal agency had planned to put up the horses in the West Douglas range for adoption over a three-year period, the Boulder Daily Sentinel reported Thursday.

The report said an environmental assessment earlier this year to amend the White River Resource Management Plan included an alternative to remove the horses by July 2007.

A Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition official said this week she thought the BLM still will call for the removal of the horses in a revised amendment.

The West Douglas herd area includes 123,387 acres of BLM land and 4,754 acres of private land southwest of Rangely.

There are about 880 gas wells next to the herd area and drilling activity is expected to move into that area in the near future, one official said.