Wild horses wander about the Spring Mountains area on Tuesday, March 14, 2017, in Las Vegas.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024 | 10:31 a.m.
The Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday will start rounding up wild horses and burros outside of Las Vegas to prevent the degradation of public lands, officials said this morning.
No helicopters will be used in the roundup, officials said. The BLM will employ temporary bait and water traps consisting of a series of corrals stocked with water and forage.
“This gather will allow us to manage wild horses and burros in the Red Rock Herd Management Area at an appropriate management level for the area,” Nicholas Pay, Pahrump field manager for the BLM, said in a statement.
“As always, the BLM is committed to conducting safe and humane gather operations as we work to bring herd size more in line with what the resources of the area can support,” he said.
The Red Rock Herd Management Area encompasses 157,443 acres of BLM land about 20 miles west of Las Vegas. Management levels in the area call for 16 to 27 wild horses and 29 to 49 wild burros, officials said.
The area had 114 wild horses and 191 wild burros as of the March population count.
This will be the first roundup at the Red Rock Herd Management Area since 2019, officials said.
The BLM’s plan is to remove about 92 wild horses and 70 wild burros.
Additionally, the agency will treat up to 10 mares with a population suppression fertility control vaccine.
The horses and burros that are removed will be taken to the Ridgecrest Regional Wild Horse and Burro Corrals in Ridgecrest, Calif., and readied for sale and adoption.
“The BLM’s priority is to conduct safe, efficient, and successful wild horse and burro gather operations while ensuring humane care and treatment of all animals gathered,” the agency said.
