ELY, NEV. – The Bureau of Land Management’s Caliente and Bristlecone field offices and Basin and Range National Monument concluded the Seaman and White River Herd Areas (HAs) wild horse gather on January 12, 2020. The BLM gathered and removed 420 excess wild horses from in and around the Seaman and White River HAs located in Lincoln, Nye and White Pine counties in eastern Nevada.

The purpose of the gather was to remove all excess wild horses from areas not designated for or suitable to their long-term management and prevent further degradation of public lands. In the 2008 Ely Resource Management Plan, the BLM decided to manage this area for zero wild horses as it no longer met the criteria for maintaining a thriving ecological balance with multiple uses as authorized under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. The gather was necessary to improve watershed health, protect wild horse health, and make significant progress towards achieving Mojave-Southern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council Standards for Rangeland Health.

The BLM transported wild horses removed from the range to the Ridgecrest Regional Wild Horse and Burro Corrals in Ridgecrest, California, to be readied for the BLM’s wild horse and burro Adoption and Sale Program. Wild horses not adopted or sold will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanely cared for and retain their “wild” status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

Additional gather information is available on the BLM website at https://go.usa.gov/xpTmp.