<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/could-wild-horses-help-fight-wildfires/>
"In 2014, William E. Simpson moved to a remote hillside near Yreka, California,
close to the California-Oregon border. He was trying to get away from his
previous buzzing internet business, seeking isolation in nature. It didn’t take
him long to notice that he wasn’t alone: He was sharing the hills surrounding
his humble cabin at the edge of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument with
bobcats, coyotes, elk, mountain lions, wolves, bears and more than 120 wild
horses. At first, the horses kept their distance, just like all the other wild
animals.
But eventually, a skinny, pregnant white mare with a foal in tow approached
him. Simpson had once studied veterinary medicine, and his training kicked in.
“I thought she was probably suffering from parasite overload and fed her some
oats with an anti-parasite I had on hand,” he recalls. A few days later, the
mare brought her entire family. Over the years, the horses have come to him
with injuries, such as cuts from the barbed wire abandoned farms had left
behind or gashes from mountain lion attacks.
“It’s all voluntary,” Simpson says. “They are wild. You can’t put a halter or
anything over their head. They just come and present their injuries. Some let
you do more than others.”
When the 38,000-acre Klamathon fire tore through the hillsides in 2018, he had
an “aha” moment. He and his wife Laura defied evacuation orders and helped the
firefighters navigate the remote dirt roads. They stayed to defend their small
ranch, but also to watch the horses. “I wanted to see how the horses reacted to
the fire,” Simpson says. “Would they panic? Run the opposite direction and get
entangled? Nobody had ever really done a study about that.”
The horses remained calm and kept grazing. “They are used to fires,” Simpson
realized. “They have been here for two million years.” He now attributes the
fact that his cabin and the surrounding hills were largely spared by the fire
to the horses. “Each wild horse consumes about 30 pounds of grass and brush a
day,” Simpson has observed. “They reduce the wildfire fuel, keeping the
wildfire risks at bay.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
