The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Oregon’s Burns District announced plans to conduct a helicopter gather of wild horses within the Warm Springs Herd Management Area (HMA) beginning in early October 2018.

The gather is being conducted to remove approximately 652 excess wild horses and to initiate research on the effects of spaying wild horse mares and returning them to the range, the BLM said.

The Wild-Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 gives BLM the direction to protect and oversee wild horses and burros on public lands. In managing these animals, the BLM works to maintain a thriving ecological balance that supports healthy horses on healthy rangelands.

The Warm Springs HMA is located approximately 25 air miles southwest of Burns, Oregon, in Harney County. The BLM has set its appropriate management level—the number of horses the range can sustainably support in conjunction with other animals and resource uses—at 96 to 178 horses; the current population is more than 800 horses. Water availability is currently inadequate to support part of the herd and BLM has been hauling water to sustain approximately 236 animals until they can be gathered.

Animals removed from the range will be transported to Oregon’s Wild Horse Corral Facility, in Hines, and prepared for adoption into private care or selected for participation in the spay and behavior research study.

The public is welcome to view the Warm Springs HMA gather and spay procedures. Details on these opportunities, as well as the gather itself, are available on the 2018 Warm Springs Gather website at goo.gl/WMmzAW.

The supporting planning documents for the Warm Springs HMA gather and Spay Feasibility and On-range Behavioral Outcomes Assessment are available on the BLM’s ePlanning website at goo.gl/i2pjyd.

The gather will likely last through mid-October 2018, though exact start and end dates will be determined by the contractor’s availability.

For more information, contact Tara Thissell at tthissell@blm.gov or 541/573-4519.