EDITOR’S NOTE: The Daily Post has published several op-ed articles by ‘wild horse’ activist William Simpson… you can click on his name, above, to access those articles… and he recently sent an open letter to one of his county commissioners concerning the McKnney Fire in northern California, where Mr. Simpson lives. The fire, burning in tall grass and brush, has since grown to 56,000 acres.
We are sharing Mr. Simpson’s letter here:
Dear Ray:
I am writing to you since you are my district Supervior. And I am once again facing possible incineration via wildfire.
I am looking out the window of my cabin at a massive towering pyrocumulus cloud and an eerie orange glow backlighting miles-long columns of black wildfire smoke.
It is approaching my ranch, now at a distance of about 25-miles and closing.
I am deeply saddened and it troubles me to have to write this email… this scenario is all too familiar…
I endured the deadly 2018 Klamathon Wildfire in our county (Siskiyou) as well.
But what must be said, must be said NOW, as we are in an exigent situation, before other counties have to learn the extremely hard and costly lesson that is being learned right now in Siskiyou County.
Sadly, and quite unnecessarily, a massive McKinney Fire has exploded in just 24-hours from 300 acres on July 29th to 38,000 acres on July 30 (the results of prodigious grass brush fuels), in the very same area (Six Rivers National Forest and west of Yreka, CA) I have been desperately trying to get the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors to launch a Pilot wildfire grazing program.
The Wild Horse Fire Brigade wildfire grazing program would cost the County nothing, because it uses wild horses (each horse grazes 30-35 pounds of incendiary grass and brush), which can be obtained at no cost from the BLM using existing law (H.R. 1625, Sec. 313 – Humane Transfer of Excess Animals), and deployed into remote wilderness for wildfire grazing that is not suited for livestock grazing (exactly the area that is currently being incinerated and carrying fire into populated areas).
Over the past 7-years, I have been begging the County to engage a Pilot wildfire grazing program using our native species American wild horses before it was too late… Now, our friends and neighbors are suffering…
Why is it so damn hard for some people to do what is logical ecologically, and cost-effective?
Now the price for overlooking/ignoring a no-brainer fuels reduction plan is being paid… as I have warned in emails and articles, many times.
So sad, and so unnecessary!
William E Simpson II
William E. Simpson II is a naturalist, author, and conservationist living in the Soda Mountain wilderness area among the wild horses that he studies. Learn more at Wild Horse Fire Brigade.