A wild horse is in a temporary holding facility during the Diamond HMA on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, near Eureka, Nevada. The horses are held here before being transported to Reno for veterinary care, like giving mares hormones that keep them from reproducing for one year. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidttt
Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Ben Noyes loads the wild horse trap into a trailer during the Diamond HMA wild horse gather on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, near Eureka, Nevada. The trap will be moved to a new location to find more wild horses. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidttt
A helicopter rounds up wild horses during the Diamond HMA gather on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, near Eureka, Nevada. The horses are coaxed into a metal trap before being transported out of the mountain range. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidttt
A trailer full of wild horses is transported from the trap to a temporary holding facility during the Diamond HMA on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, near Eureka, Nevada. The stallions are separated from the mares and foals. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidttt
Two domesticated horses are rounded up by Eureka’s sheriff as the crew heads out to the first day of the Diamond Herd Management Area wild horse gather on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, near Eureka, Nevada. The roundup of wild horses intends to remove some of the thousands of wild horses that roam the Diamond Mountain Range and return it to an "appropriate management level." (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidttt
Wild horses are held in temporary pens during the Diamond HMA wild horse gather on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, near Eureka, Nevada. They’ll stay in this spot for up to 48 hours before being transported to Reno for veterinary care and then to be trained and adopted or put up for auction. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidttt
Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Ben Noyes walks into the wild horse trap after a day of gathering during the Diamond HMA on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, near Eureka, Nevada. Noyes has been part of wild horse gathers for about 15 years, he said. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidttt
U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Jenny Lesieutre speaks with incident command via radio about the Diamond HMA wild horse gather on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, near Eureka, Nevada. Lesieutre will facilitate the public viewing area throughout the 20 to 25 day operation. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidttt
The Diamond HMA on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, near Eureka, Nevada. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenkschmidttt
Pickups rolled over the sagebrush-filled landscape leading to the public observation site on one September day of the Diamond Complex Wild Horse Gather.
For the next five to eight hours on Sept. 10, helicopters coaxed wild horses from their homes in the Diamond Mountain Range into the custody of the Bureau of Land Management.
The day’s events were repeated throughout the duration of the multi-day gather in an area north of Eureka in the Diamond Mountain Range.
By the time the effort ended Sept. 29, the BLM gathered 1,196 wild horses and removed 1,139 horses, the agency said in a news release. Forty-three horses were released back onto the range, where some 300 wild horses still remain.
The gather’s purpose, according to the agency, is “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.”
Besides wild horses, cattle also graze the rangelands, which are habitat for wildlife such as pronghorn antelope, sage grouse and mule deer.
“It’s a balancing act,” BLM spokeswoman Jenny Lesieutre said.
Gathered horses were taken to the Palomino Valley Off-Range Corrals in Reno, where they will be readied for the BLM’s wild horse and burro adoption program. Horses not adopted or sold will stay in BLM custody in long-term pastures, where they will be “humanely cared for and retain their ‘wild’ status and protection” under the 1971 act.
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