Making Sand Wash Basin Self-Sustaining

Big Changes Are in the Air!!

Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin has been awarded $94,705 from Senate Bill 23-275. This amount has increased from the original award to cover additional improvements to Sheepherder Spring.

$28,335 will be used for improvements to CoffeePot Springs, $36,370 will be used for repairs at SheepHerder Springs and $ 30,000 for Maintenance at SheepPen Pond.

The Senate Bill appropriated these funds to be paid through the Colorado Department of Agriculture as a one-year payment, with the projects being completed by July of 2024. Just recently our Governor signed an extension of the deadline for project completion, but no additional funding was added.

Although WHW had hopes of adding some new signs and gates in Sand Wash Basin, with the increased pricing of the water projects those projects have been put on hold for now. We are optimistic that once our Governor sees the completed projects and their importance to the wild horses, he will appropriate more funds for 2025, but that is just a hope.

After the approval of our requested additional funds, we got our final bid on SheepPen Pond, it was considerably more than the verbal estimate. Part of that was due to obtaining more accurate measurements on the diameter of the pond. Doing bids while the ground is covered with snow and the roads are closed is always risky, but when given deadlines to work with we all did our best.

Due to the increase in the cost of SheepPen Pond our current plan is to do a partial repair unless WHW can raise the additional funds needed to complete the project.

The plan for the repairs at SheepPen would entail removing the soil from the lower portion of the dam and placing a poly liner around the perimeter of the dam. Currently we have the funds to do approximately 2/3s of the perimeter. We would need another $20,000 to complete the entire dam. We will start with the weakest portion of the dam with the funds we currently have.

Your donations have helped us complete many projects for a healthier range for wild horses. Thank you, without your donations done of the previous projects would have been possible.

If you would like to help us continue our efforts to make Sand Wash Basin self-sustaining, please donate.

You may also mail a check to;

The Community Foundation of Northwest of Colorado PO Box 653, Craig CO 81626

The Community Foundation is our fiscal agent. Please mark your checks WHW.

Thank you.