RENO - The Bureau of Land Management announced its current summer schedule for gathering wild horses and burros roaming Western public rangelands.
The schedule is subject to change because of continuing drought conditions across the West that are resulting in significantly limited water and forage for wildlife, wild horses and burros and livestock.
BLM managers are monitoring animal and range conditions, reducing livestock grazing, enacting fire restrictions, and providing supplemental water in some locations for wild horses.
Most of the gathers on the schedule will use bait and water trapping to attract, gather, and remove animals to off-range pastures and corrals over the next several months. Because of access constraints, lack of suitable bait-water trapping sites, and the need for more immediate action related to animal condition, six of the proposed gathers will be conducted using helicopters.
Because of off-range holding capacity limits and funding constraints, the BLM will attempt to gather and remove only 1,300 wild horses and burros this summer. Overall, the BLM anticipates removing about 4,800 animals from the range in FY 2013, as compared to 8,255 in FY 2012.
In Nevada, the BLM plans to gather about 855 wild horses this summer. The largest roundups are planned for Kamma Mountain, where the BLM plans to remove 200 wild horses, Snowstorms, with 340 animals to be removed, and Fish Lake Valley, where 150 wild horses will be captured. Smaller roundups are planned for Silver King, Seaman/White River, Delamar Mountains HA, Hickison and Gold Mountain.
Most of the upcoming gathers have been scheduled in response to emergency conditions brought on by drought; public safety issues related to animals that roam near highways, residential areas, and agricultural areas; and requests from private landowners who have asked the BLM to remove from their property wild horses and burros that have strayed beyond Herd Management Area (HMA) boundaries.
With the exception of some re-treatments of mares in the Little Bookcliffs (Colorado) Wild Horse Range, the agency does not intend to administer fertility-control vaccine during any of the proposed summer gathers. Instead, the BLM intends to implement fertility-control treatments through ground-darting operations and during gathers between November and February - before breeding season - when the vaccines' maximum effectiveness can be realized.
Animals removed during the gather season will be made available for adoption through the BLM's wild horse and burro adoption program. [[In-content Ad]]
