The Bureau of Land Management Rawlins and Lander field offices, in Wyoming, have announced that a preliminary environmental assessment analyzing a proposed wild horse gather in the Red Desert Wild Horse herd management area (HMA) complex is now available for review.

The Red Desert Complex, which includes the Antelope Hills, Crooks Mountain, Green Mountain, Lost Creek, and Stewart Creek HMAs, is located in Sweetwater, Carbon, Fremont and Natrona counties west and south of Wyoming Highway 287.

The proposed operation would include gathering wild horses, treating all mares to be released with the PZP-22 (porcine zona pellucida) fertility control vaccine, and removing horses to bring the population of the complex within its appropriate management level. All horses that have moved outside the HMAs would also be removed. The proposed gather could take place late this year or in 2016.

The preliminary environmental assessment analyzes three alternatives and is available on the BLM website at www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/documents/rfo/red-desert.html