Reno Completes Fencing to Keep Horses Off Roads

The Virginia Range and Wildlife Preserve Project creates a continuous barrier between wild horses and heavily traveled roads.

Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Large Animals

Photograph of a new steel-and-wire fence and cattle guard running across dry sagebrush hills, with a distant herd of horses beyond the barrier. — The City of Reno has completed a roughly $1.35 million fencing project along the Virginia Range to keep wild horses off heavily traveled roads. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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The City of Reno has completed the Virginia Range and Wildlife Preserve Project, a fencing effort designed to keep horses away from roadways. The project cost around $1.35 million and was funded by state and local governments, regional agencies, and private donors.

Why it matters

Horse-vehicle collisions on the Virginia Range have posed danger to drivers and animals, and the project aims to reduce those dangerous interactions on heavily traveled roads. It also keeps horses connected to a water source at Steamboat Creek.

The Virginia Range and Wildlife Preserve Project cost around $1.35 million, and collisions between horses and vehicles totaled around 36 from 2021 to 2023 before the project's construction. Roughly 11 horses were struck by cars during the 2024 to 2026 construction period, and the long-term effect on the roughly 3,500 horses on the range is not yet measured.

The players

City of Reno

The city government of Reno, Nevada, led and completed the Virginia Range and Wildlife Preserve Project to address horse safety on local roads.

The details

Crews installed numerous gates and cattle guards and filled gaps in existing fencing along the corridor from Toll Road to Mira Loma Drive. The result is a continuous physical barrier between Virginia Range horses and heavily traveled roads.

Between 2021 and 2023, around 36 horse-vehicle collisions occurred on the Virginia Range.
Construction ran from 2024 to 2026, during which about 11 horses were struck by cars.
On November 5, 2026, the City of Reno announced the project's completion.

Roadmap

Roughly 40,000 horses live across Nevada, with about 3,500 on the Virginia Range, where collisions with vehicles had become a recurring safety problem. The Reno project responds to that documented trend by building a physical barrier between the herd and traffic corridors.

Drivers on the Toll Road to Mira Loma Drive corridor should expect fewer horses near the roadway now that gaps in fencing have been filled. The project also keeps the horses' access to water at Steamboat Creek intact.

The takeaway

Physical barriers paired with preserved water access offer one practical way to reduce wildlife collisions while keeping herds intact. Residents who travel the Virginia Range corridor can expect safer driving conditions as the fencing settles in.