Monday, December 3, 2012

Wild Horses Invade Mine Land

From WYMT in  Kentucky, this news about wild horses on a strip mine site in Harlan County.  My colleague, Marsha Kauffman, saw a similar site on a trip to a strip mine in Mingo County.  She was amazed at the number of horses that were simply moving about  in large herds.  She was told that the horses were  often left there by their owners to forage until someone came to get them.  Others were  just free-roaming and had no owner.

Evidently the horses in Harlan County, like the mustangs  in the West that are rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management, are overgrazing their land.  Mine operators are having trouble maintaining the grasses that are necessary to allow them to get bond release. With no large natural predators, it's not surprising  that the herd has grown out of control.

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