HikeArizona.COM

Possibly as early as Friday.
There are petitions on Facebook, and people are contacting the media ... lets keep these beautiful creatures wild and free!

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tonto/new ... PRD3848902

Zee special interests have won.

Jim_H wrote:Zee special interests have won.

That's great they bought themselves some time. I really hope they work together to find the best solution.

Tough_Boots wrote:That's great they bought themselves some time. I really hope they work together to find the best solution.

The horses, or the Forest Service?

The horses, duh!

@chumley
Nope - and as far as I know, the horses aren't felons anyhow.
USFS stepped in a big steaming pile this time, and the soft-hearted horse lovers have succeeded in protecting them for the time being ...
Hopefully a good solution can be reached for the horses and the environment.
I vote to ban and get rid of tubers first - their trash and bad behavior is far worse than anything the wild horses could do, in my opinion.

As always I suspect money is the driving factor. The tubing contract nets some big revenue for the FS. The horses have some impact and the FS has nobody to recouperate any $ from since they are feral. Sad truth.

chumley wrote:nobody to recouperate any $ from since they are feral.

Feral Pony rides?

@The Eagle
What could go wrong?

The Eagle wrote:Feral Pony rides?

You nailed it, the FS is moving a group to the Gilbert Riparian Area as part of their feral cat and pony show.

I could see Jim H taking a feral pony ride, complete with the hat and plastic chaps...

Jason Cleghorn wrote:I could see Jim H taking a feral pony ride, complete with the hat and plastic chaps...

I'm hoping your vision has him wearing more than those two things.

The chaps are of the un-assless variety.

Whew! I was wondering what sort of visions you were imagining.

sounds like not even the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group was happy with the pack of states rights dimwits that showed up:

http://www.phoenixnewt...

If that group had it's way, there would be not only be no USFS, but no public land for anyone to use. They do not make an ally of anyone interested in anything on FS lands, as their subversive goal is clearly stated as dismantling the FS. I'd sooner support the right of every overly emotional horse enthusiast to let a massive herd of wild ponies roam free and crap all over the forest, than even consider those state rights morons. His views are so distorted, that he speaks on one side of his mouth about the unconstitutionality of the FS, but then calls himself a Christian Constitutional Republican, which demonstrates to me he probably has the misguided belief that the Constitution established a national religion. Part of the party that seeks to destroy government by telling you it is a failure, when their only goal when elected is to create a failure.

My wife and I were chatting about this on a hike Sunday. I pointed out that at Clover Canyon the FS lets ranchers run cattle every other year there so as not to destroy the environment. This is done all over the state and nobody has a problem because most of us will end up eating said bovines. But horse consumption in America is akin to the sacred cows of India. So if those were cattle along the Dirty Verde they would be trucked off to market and nobody would be crying crocodile tears. I also grew up knowing many Yavapai and Akimel O'odham/Pee-Posh Natives and it was commonly known that their horses were allowed to run the Verde and some went feral. They also ran their cattle along the Verde, duh it's water and grass and their land so why not. But gosh what happened to all the feral cattle?

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tonto/new ... PRD3855748

According to someone I spoke with Sunday, this is part of why they want to remove these feral stock from this area of the forest/ desert. :bdh: except, their piles of feces are the source, not horse carcasses.

When I would swim train as a triathlete back in the 80's, I loved Saguaro Lake. But there was no way in Hades I'd ever swim over at Butcher Jones. That has always been a cesspool and I don't think it's all equine caused.

Alston Neal wrote:I don't think it's all equine caused.

Are there feral horses at Slide Rock State Park? Because that place is regularly closed due to e. coli levels being too high. Perhaps there's something else the two places have in common...