BLM Issues Draft EA on Wyoming Wild Horse Gather

The population of 2,836 horses in three HMAs exceeds the cumulative AML of 1,560 animals by about 80%, the BLM says.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released its draft environmental assessment (EA) for a proposed wild horse gather in southwest Wyoming and is seeking public input.

The BLM said the proposed gather will reduce wild horse populations in the Salt Wells Creek, Adobe Town, and Great Divide Basin herd management areas (HMAs) to their appropriate management levels (AML) in order to maintain healthy wild horses on healthy, productive rangelands.

Currently, the BLM estimates that Western public rangelands are home to 73,000 wild horses and burros; this amounts to nearly triple the 26,715-animal population target that was established by the Wild-Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, as amended. The agency said this overpopulation can result in wild horses’ and burros’ starvation, dehydration from lack of water, and death.

In the three HMAs affected by the proposed gather, the current, overall population of 2,836 wild horses exceeds the cumulative AML of 1,560 animals by about 80%. The proposed gather would remove 513 of the 1,123 wild horses present in the Adobe Town HMA, 725 of the 976 in the Salt Wells Creek HMA, and 322 of the 737 in the Great Divide Basin HMA. The proposed gather would also allow the BLM to comply with the 2013 Consent Decree of Rock Springs Grazing Association v. Salazar

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
303 votes · 303 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!