With the free-roaming horse population west of Sundre continuing to grow, it's time for discussions to explore strategies for management of the animals, says Tom Daniels, forester with Sundre Forest Products.ìThe population is going up and as the population continues to increase it's going to have more and more impact out there. So we should be having the discussion now,î said Daniels. ìWhether this population is considered to be ëwild or ëferal' is really secondary with the primary concern being that the population is not being managed and is continuing to increase.ìThe horses are very good at protecting themselves from predators and so their population is not kept in check. Australia is facing similar issues with feral camels that are estimated to be at a population size of over a million.ìDiscussions and strategies are required in order to determine what thresholds are going to be put on the horse population so the Australia situation does not occur here.îHe said he would like those discussions to involve researchers, industry representatives, the Olds-based Wild Horses of Alberta Society (WHOAS), other stakeholders and ìanybody who has a real keen interest in the horses.îìI don't want to make this into a big public discussion; that can come later,î he said. ìWhat needs to happen is you get some people who have some good knowledge about the horses out there and they hopefully come up with some recommendations that can be used by government.ìHopefully then the government will feel comfortable to act upon the recommendations because it's going to be a political hotbed no matter which way it goes.îSundre Forest Products is the largest employer in the Sundre area, with operations throughout the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies west of Sundre.The Sundre-Rocky Mountain House area has one of the largest populations of feral or wild horses in Alberta.The provincial government says the horses are the feral offspring of animals that escaped from logging and outfitting camps; the Wild Horses of Alberta Society (WHOAS) says the animals are wild.WHOAS president Bob Henderson says he does not believe there is an overpopulation of wild horses west of Sundre. He estimates there are about 500 of the animals west of town.ìYou can drive around up there for a day or even go riding for a day, and they are definitely not overpopulated to the point that they are doing damage to cutblocks,î said Henderson.ìThe horses actually benefit the new seedling because they eat the grass around the trees, and therefore giving the trees a better chance with less competition.îTom Daniels acknowledged that the horses do eat some of the company's seedlings planted as part of reforestation efforts.ìIt's not a huge concern for us,î said Daniels. ìThe other side of it is from a safety perspective. It's not a big deal; we haven't had any vehicle collisions with horses yet. We've had a staff member that was threatened by a horse, but that's only one incident.î
