The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public input on a proposed wild horse gather in southwest Wyoming — they want to hear what people think about a recent environmental assessment.
A wild horse gather is a herd management technique meant to remove the animal from the land, before entering them into the agencies wild horse and burro program, where they can be adopted.
It’s one of a few different options included in the BLM’s environmental assessment that would address the problem of overpopulation on the horse’s range. If approved, the gather would round up about 1,500 wild horses from the Salt Wells Creek, Adobe Town and Great Divide Basin Herd Management areas near Rock Springs. In the assessment, the BLM evaluates how such a gather could impact habitat resources such as mineral development and recreation. BLM spokesperson Kimberlee Foster said the environmental assessment is meant to inform and support whatever action they decide to take.
“One of the things we evaluate in the E.A. is if we take no action, which would mean we don’t do any kind of gather at this point,” said Foster. “Well, we know the horses are overpopulated, so obviously there’s an impact even from doing no action, because if we fail to remove the horses then that has an impact to various resources as well.”
Foster said public input is valuable early in the process.
“It’s really the public’s opportunity to review the analysis and see what’s there, to see if the public thinks it’s complete and it’s ready to be used to make a decision,” said Foster. “Because basically the environmental assessment supports any decision that we’ll make for implementing the proposed action or any of the alternatives that were identified.”
The public has until August 10 to submit comments either via email to blm_wy_adobetown_saltwells_hma@blm.gov with “2017 AML Gather EA” included in the subject line. Comments can also be hand-delivered or mailed to
BLM Rock Springs Field Office
2017 AML Gather
280 Highway 191 North
Rock Springs, WY 82901
