on her initiative and nevada state senator walter baring's actions, nevada passed a bill that made free-roaming roundups by planes and cars illegal on state and private lands.2016 although the free-roaming horses on all lands in the state were under the jurisdiction of the state estray laws, federal lands, administered chiefly by the bureau of land management and the forest service, which comprise almost 85% of the lands in nevada were exempt from the law due to objections from the agencies that the law would hamper attempts to remove the horses from the federal lands. as large parts of nevada were thereby excluded from the bill, johnston continued to fight for protection of the free-roaming horses throughout the state and across all the federal lands in the west. she initiated a massive letter writing campaign by students to senators and congressmen. on september 8, 1959, the campaign resulted in the federal legislature passing public law 86-234 which banned air and land vehicles from hunting and capturing free-roaming horses on federal land. this became known as the "wild horse annie act".