The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Carson City District, Stillwater Field Office has completed the final Environmental Assessment (EA) and issued the Decision Record (DR) for the Wassuk Wild Horse Gather. The BLM will gather approximately 500 wild horses and remove approximately 250 excess wild horses from the range. As many as 250 wild horses will be released back to the range following the gather. The gather area is located 12 miles southeast of Yerington, Nev., and west of Walker Lake.
Of the animals released back on the range, about 100 mares would be vaccinated with PZP-22 (Porcine Zona Pellucida) fertility control vaccine which would assist with slowing population growth, maintaining population size within the Appropriate Management Level (AML), and extend the time before another gather to remove excess wild horses would be needed. This would leave a post-gather population of approximately 373 wild horses in the Wassuk Herd Management Area (HMA), which is above the AML range of 110-165, at the conclusion of the initial gather operations.
The BLM intends to continue with population control activities over the next 10 years by returning every two to three years to re-treat mares with fertility control vaccine as well as to remove excess wild horses within the Wassuk HMA area as identified in the DR.
TheWassuk HMA wild horse gather is scheduled to begin in November 2012.
Links to the EA and related documents are located on the BLM website at: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/
For further information please contact Linda Appel at 775-885-6010.
