The Fifteenmile HMA is located approximately 35 miles northwest of Worland, Wyoming, in Washakie, Big Horn, and Park counties. | Photo: Bob Wick/BLM Wyoming via Flikr CC

The Fifteenmile HMA is located approximately 35 miles northwest of Worland, Wyoming, in Washakie, Big Horn, and Park counties. The BLM set the HMA’s current 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 70–160 mature horses. The BLM said it estimates that the population is approaching 500 horses, including some that have moved outside the HMA boundary.

The proposed gather operation would include gathering and removing wild horses to return the population to the low range of the AML. Horses that have moved outside the HMA would also be removed. A date for the proposed gather has not yet been determined.

In addition, public comments are needed on the proposed update to the Fifteenmile HMA plan, which will guide future management of the HMA and the wild horses within it for the next several years, the BLM said. The proposed plan update includes adjustments to population, habitat, and monitoring objectives