(Lander, WY) — The Bureau of Land Management Lander Field Office requests public input as it analyzes future wild horse gathers 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 more than 1,600 horses in the complex.
“Gathers will be 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’s analysis will include various alternatives for gathering and implementing population control measures to achieve and maintain the AML. Population control methods that may be considered include gelding or vasectomizing stallions; reducing the reproducing population through adjusted sex ratios; using intrauterine devices (IUDs) on mares; and using the fertility control drug GonaCon.
Public input is valuable early in the process and will enable the BLM to develop a well-informed environmental assessment. Comments should be received by April 30, 2021 and may be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to Wild Horse Specialist, BLM Lander Field Office, 1335 Main Street, Lander, WY 82401.
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.