The Onaqui wild horse gather temporarily delayed
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TOOELE, Utah — The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Salt Lake Field Office will soon begin gather operations to address wild horse overpopulation from within and outside of the Onaqui Herd Management Area in Tooele and Juab counties. Due to unexpected delays, the gather is tentatively scheduled to begin on July 13, 2021, and is expected to last up to 12 days. The BLM will confirm the start date of the gather on the BLM Utah webpage at www.blm.gov/utah and on social media. No changes have been made to the gather plan.
The BLM will gather wild horses from state, private, U.S. Forest Service, military, and BLM lands. Some horses will be removed, and some will be returned to the herd management area. All returned mares will be treated with a fertility control vaccine to help stabilize manage population increases. The appropriate management level – the number of horses the range can sustainably support in conjunction with other animals and resource uses – for the Onaqui Herd Management Area is 121 to 210 horses, and the current population is more than 475 (not including the current year’s foals).
Those interested in observing gather operations should meet on the first day of the gather at the northeast end of the Walmart parking lot located at 99 West 1280 North in Tooele, Utah, where tours will depart at 5:30 a.m. MDT.
Access to and distance from the capture site location will be determined jointly by the Contractor and the BLM's Contracting Officer's Representative prior to gather operations. Safety of the horses, crew, and public is our top priority.
The horses chosen to be released back to the herd management area will be released at the gather site, or shipped to Sutherland, Utah Off-Range Contract Facility. The Sutherland facility is not an open public facility; thus, no public observation will be allowed at that location. The horses selected for removal and offered up for adoption and/or sale will be shipped to the Delta, Utah Wild Horse & Burro Facility. Once the horses have had time to acclimate, the Delta facility will be opened to the public for viewing. Horses removed from the Onaqui gather will be available for adoption via the BLM Online Corral Adoption beginning in mid-October.
For more information and to find the progress of the gather and/or whether or not a viewing opportunity exists each day, first check our social media sites and the gather webpage: www.blm.gov/utah. Visit our Facebook or Twitter pages for updates. You may also call the Utah Wild Horse & Burro hotline at 801-539-4050 or email at BLM_UT_WHB@blm.gov.
The supporting planning documents for the Onaqui Herd Management Area gather are available on the BLM’s ePlanning web site.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.