This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public input on a plan to round up wild horses in the Red Desert, a complex of Herd Management Areas (HMA) operated by BLM’s Lander and Rawlins field offices. The agency hopes to remove approximately 1,800 by the end of the summer. It’s also looking to update the Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) for the area, which dictates how many animals the land can support. The current plan is more than 30 years old.
Antelope Hills, Crooks Mountain, Green Mountain, Lost Creek and Stewart Creek ranges in south-central Wyoming make up the Red Desert Complex. Officials say the population there has exceeded the management level of 480-724 horses, and could reach up to 2,300 wild horses by the fall. This would bring the population back within range requiring the BLM to step in and manage it. Populations grow by an average of 20% each year in unmanaged herds, which can starve horses and harm other animals like sage grouse.
Since 1971, the BLM has removed more than 37,000 wild horses from rangelands to maintain healthy populations. More than 80% of the BLM’s HMAs have populations exceeding their appropriate levels.
Some of the rounded up horses are put up for adoption, but most are sent to long-term corrals in nearby states or off-range pastures. Horses aren’t deliberately killed once collected, but some die in the roundup process.
The Red Desert Complex is situated just north of the so-called checkerboard land across southwest Wyoming, approximately 2.1 million acres of mixed public and private lands that have been the subject of intense litigation since 2024. Last year, ranchers who didn’t want free-roaming horses on their land spoke up, and BLM got the okay to remove more than 3,000 of them from the region. But a federal court in Denver blocked the action, citing the agency’s failure to explain the project’s ecological necessity. A number of animal rights groups also sued the BLM.
The BLM indicated that more horses would not be rounded up from the checkerboard area until summer 2026. This year’s proposal only includes the Red Desert Complex.
The BLM is accepting public comment until July 13.
