The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) concluded a wild horse gather on Feb. 23 within the overpopulated Triple B Complex in Eastern Nevada.

The BLM removed 1,294 wild horses from the range. The agency treated 28 mares with the fertility-control vaccine PZP and released them back to the range, along with 28 stallions and three mare-and-foal pairs.

The helicopter gather took place within the Triple B Complex, which is located in both the Ely and Elko Districts and consists of the Triple B herd management area (HMA, Ely), Maverick Medicine HMA (Elko), Antelope Valley HMA west of U.S. Highway 93 (Elko), and Cherry Springs Wild Horse Territory (Elko). In addition, the BLM removed some wild horses from areas outside of those HMAs, where they had moved in search of food and water and created a public safety hazard by traveling regularly across Jiggs Road.

The BLM said the gather’s purpose was to prevent undue or unnecessary degradation of the public lands associated with excess wild horses and to restore a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship on public lands, consistent with the provisions of Section 1333(b) of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act