The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Utah’s Salt Lake Field Office concluded the gathering and removing of excess wild horses from within and outside the Cedar Mountain Wild Horse Herd Management Area (HMA) in western Utah on Feb. 21.

The BLM gathered 534 horses, of which 306 were permanently removed from the range. The remaining 228 horses were returned to the HMA; this includes 104 mares treated with the fertility control vaccine porcine zona pellucida-22 (PZP-22).

The Cedar Mountain HMA is located in Tooele County, approximately 50 miles west of Tooele. It encompasses approximately 197,275 acres and has a current estimated population at 650 wild horses, the BLM said. The agency has established the HMA’s appropriate management level at 190-390 wild horses.

Animals removed from the range were shipped to Utah’s Delta Wild Horse and Burro Facility and will be made available for adoption through the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program beginning in April or May. Those that are not adopted will be cared for on off-range pastures where they retain their protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act