BLM plans to remove 430 wild horses from Fifteenmile HMA (Wyo.)

/ In The News, News, Roundups

Wild horses roam the Fifteenmile Herd Management Area. BLM photo.

The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comment on a planned roundup, likely by helicopter, in and around the Fifteenmile Herd Management Area, located about 35 miles northwest of Worland, Wyo.

No date has been set for the roundup.

The BLM estimates that the population of wild horses is about 500 wild horses in and around the Fifteenmile HMA, which is made up of 81,000 acres of mostly BLM land intermingled with state and private land. The agency-set “Appropriate Management Level” is 70 to 160 wild horses — as low as one horse for every 1,150 acres.

The BLM’s goal is to capture any wild horses not on the HMA and reduce the population on the HMA to the low end of that population goal.

By comparison, BLM has allocated 3,370 Animal Unit Months toward privately owned livestock on the HMA or the equivalent of 280 cow-calf pairs (one AUM = monthly forage for one cow/calf pair, five sheep or one horse).

Read BLM’s Environmental Assessment here.

Submit public comment

Public comments on BLM’s Environmental Assessment are due by March 4, 2019. They may be emailed to blm_wy_fifteenmile_hma@blm.gov or mailed to Wild Horse Specialist, BLM Worland Field Office, 101 South 23rd Street, Worland, WY 82401.