The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Challis, ID, office is employing an alternative method for gathering horses in the Challis Wild Horse Herd Management Area (CHMA).
Rather than the usual use of helicopters, BLM is using temporary water and hay/mineral bait traps consisting of a series of corral panels. The decision record issued in August of 2019 authorized maintenance bait/water trap gathers and stated, “Selecting the proposed action allows BLM to respond to the issue of excess wild horses within the CHMA using various tools to reduce the populations to within appropriate management level (AML) and maintain that level over time.”
The BLM plans to gather approximately 70 wild horses and remove approximately 39 for the adoption program. The remainder will be released following fertility control to maintain populations within the AML level of 185-253 horses within the CHMA.
