The Bureau of Land Management Lander Field Office has released an environmental assessment that analyzes future wild horse gather, removal and fertility control operations in the North Lander Wild Horse Complex.
The North Lander Complex is in southeast Fremont County and is made up of the Conant Creek, Dishpan Butte, Muskrat Basin and Rock Creek Mountain herd management areas. The North Lander Complex’s appropriate management level (AML)—the point at which the wild horse population is consistent with the land’s capacity to support it and other mandated uses of those lands—is 320–536 horses. The BLM estimates that there are close to 2,000 horses in the complex.
“Gathers and fertility control measures are needed in the North Lander Complex to return the population to within its AML, slow population growth and remove wild horses that have strayed outside of the complex,” said Lander Field Manager John Elliott. The BLM could begin gather operations later in 2022.
The environmental assessment analyzes a range of alternatives for gathering and implementing population growth suppression measures to achieve and maintain the AML. Suppression measures that are analyzed include gelding or vasectomizing stallions; reducing the reproducing population through adjusted sex ratios; using flexible intrauterine devices (IUDs) on mares; and using the fertility vaccine GonaCon-Equine.
Public comments on this EA will be accepted through the BLM’s ePlanning website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2014081/510. If you cannot access this system, comments may be submitted by mail to Wild Horse Specialist, BLM Lander Field Office, 1335 Main Street, Lander, WY 82520. The comment period closes February 18, 2022.
All comments, including personal identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. While you may ask that your identifying information be withheld from public review, the BLM cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
For more information, contact BLM Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Clay Stott at (307) 332-8400.
