What is an ‘invasive species’?
According to National Geographic’s encyclopedia:
“An invasive species is an organism that is not indigenous, or native, to a particular area.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Invasive Species Information Center:
“Domestic cows are non-native to North America and were introduced as a food source, and considered to be a beneficial organism in an agricultural setting.”
It’s apparent that the USDA realizes that the economically-ecologically driven debate over the native species status of American wild horses is a political hot-potato, and have properly avoided listing the modern horse (E. Caballus) as a non-native species in North America at its website.
Yet the USDA does correctly list cattle as “non-native to North America”.
What the USDA intentionally omits is that those who ‘consider’ cattle as a so-called ‘beneficial organism’ are those people and entities who benefit from the commercial value of livestock production, sometimes even at the grave expense of the environment and other native species.
And what about when cattle are intentionally managed outside the so-called “agricultural setting” as stipulated by the USDA, as when they are allowed to graze into non-agricultural wilderness and forest areas?
It’s not a valid argument (ecologically or morally) to even suggest that the economic value of a non-native invasive species somehow warrants the mismanagement of any native species merely because a native species may lack commercial economic value such as the American Bald Eagle, or in the case at hand, the native species American wild horse.
However, in fact, when wild horses are living in wilderness areas that are both ecologically and economically appropriate, each horse living in such areas provides $72,000 in taxpayer value as wildfire fuels managers. This article details that economic value proposition: ‘The Dollars and Cents of America’s Wild Horses’.
The American insurance industry analysts who are struggling with enormous financial losses from catastrophic wildfires have caught onto the value of native species American wild horses as cost-effective wildfire fuels managers.
AM BEST TV recently showcased a short documentary titled: ‘Rewilding’ Horses Aims to Mitigate Wildfires, Reduce Insured Losses.
American wild horses are arguably grossly mismanaged by the USDA and the Bureau of Land Management (‘BLM’) merely because they are a non-commercial herbivore, unlike cattle, sheep, deer and elk that have commercial value to consumers who desire livestock products and hunting opportunities.
It’s a plain scientific and historical fact that cattle and sheep did not evolve on the North American continent. In fact, there’s not a single cow or sheep fossil discovered or to be found anywhere in North America, since cattle and sheep were introduced into North America in the 16th century by European settlers.
Invasive species livestock damage the landscape.
According to professor Thomas L. Fleischner, Ph.D: “The most severe vegetation changes of the last 5400 years occurred during the past 200 years. The nature and timing of these changes suggest that they were primarily caused by 19th-century open-land sheep and cattle ranching.”
Dr. Fleischner’s research paper, ‘Land Held Hostage: A History of Livestock and Politics’ can be read in full at this link.
So what about America’s wild horses? Are they native to the continent? Do they damage the landscape?
Jay F. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. and Patricia M. Fazio, Ph.D. presented a very compelling argument in favor of the native species status of the American wild horse in their 2010 research paper titled, ‘Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife’.
The newest data on the evolution and natural history of American wild horses integrates Indigenous Wisdom with the very latest paleontology, cultural archaeology and genetic research. The aggregate of the compiled data and research now ends the debate as to the genuine ‘native species’ status of American wild horses.
Recently, indigenous scientists, like Dr. Yvette ‘Running Horse’ Collin and others, have revealed that the latest best available science proves wild horses did in fact live in North America during the post Ice-Age period and right-up to the arrival of Columbus in 1492.
PBS recently aired the summary documentary of this new indigenous science supporting that wild horses are a ‘native species’.
We also have the doctoral dissertation from Yvette ‘Running Horse’ Collin that cites excerpts from the exploration of the western coast of America in 1580 by Sir Francis Drake, who reported the citing of wild horses living among the local indigenous peoples here on the Oregon-California border in the immediate vicinity of the Klamath River, where our herd and private research station are located.
The Spanish conquistadors were not the only European explorers to have noticed and recorded early sightings of horses in the Americas. In 1579, the Queen of England sent Sir Francis Drake to “The New World.” Drake also recorded having seen herds of horses in the Americas during his voyage off the coasts of what are now known as California and Oregon. An account given of Drake’s landing in the geographic areas now known as Northern California and Southern Oregon includes the English explorer’s description of the homes of the Native Peoples, as well as the animals that he encountered. “It related his wonder at seeing so many wild horses, because he had heard that the Spaniards had found no native horses in America, save those of the Arab breed which they had introduced.” In addition to accounts from explorers appointed by European kings and queens, there are accounts of native horses in South America in the area now known as Argentina. One such account even includes an explanation as to why the Spanish may have been motivated to hide the fact that the Indigenous horse of the Americas existed and had a relationship with Native Peoples. According to an article entitled Antiguedad del Caballo En El Plata (The Antiquity of the Horse in the River Plate) by Anibal Cardoso as cited by Austin Whittall on his blog site article.
The longstanding existence of the local heritage horses in Southern Oregon is also well documented and chronicled by the local newspapers and journals in Jacksonville, Central Point, Ashland and Medford Oregon dating back to the 1850’s.
I am also in possession of the diary and photo album of a famous area part indigenous cowboy and Jackson County Oregon deputy sheriff, George F. Wright, whose family was granted property and had a cabin in the area just two miles from our private lands and research station.
The Wright family came to California with Jedidiah Smith in 1850, and settled in the area of Hornbrook, CA shortly thereafter, being some of the first settlers in the area. Several of Thomas Jefferson Wright’s sons settled along the Camp Creek tributary feeding the Klamath River in the early 1900’s, also near our lands. The Wright family photo-album, which in of itself is a lesson in the Natural History of the area, and the photos (dating back to 1911) depicts the wildlife of the area, and also, the “wild horses” on the range here.
The fuel reduction/maintenance model that takes advantage of the symbiotic wildfire grazing by wild horses, known as the Wild Horse Fire Brigade, worked-well and helped CALFIRE stop the deadly 2018 Klamathon Fire from reaching the fuel-choked Cascade Siskiyou National Monument, sparing that old-growth forest, the wildlife therein and the college town of Ashland, Oregon.
And it’s a well-known fact that native species American wild horses are highly beneficial to naturally operating, intact ecosystems.
American wild horses are arguably the most understudied North American mammal, and that is by design. The truth about wild horses and their beneficial behavioral ecology present many inconvenient facts that the BLM, USFS and others prefer remain unknown.
Nevertheless, these important facts about American wild horses are now surfacing much to the chagrin of the BLM, USFS and some entities in the livestock production and mineral extraction industries.
Just 120 years ago most Americans depended upon horses for their survival. America is a horse culture.
If we are as smart as we think we are, horses can once again come to the aid of humankind.
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.