CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — The Bureau of Land Management is planning to remove 800 to 900 wild horses from several areas in southern Wyoming.

The BLM's Rock Springs field office is responding to requests from private landowners in the checkerboard area that follows the path of the transcontinental railroad.

In 1862, Congress gave every other section of land within 20 miles of the railroad to Union Pacific. The result today is a confusing cross-section of largely unfenced public and private grazing lands on which wild horses travel freely. The horses will be removed from land in the Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek herd management areas.

The Rock Springs Grazing Association won a lawsuit that paved the way for the horses' removal from private checkerboard lands.

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