Photo: CBS 4 Denver; BLM’s Plan for Wild Horses.
The horses seen in the CBS image above on the left are wild horses that were rounded-up by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and relocated to the barren ground of the failed Haythorn cattle ranch in Maxwell, Nebraska. Many decades of poor land management and over-grazing of these lands has stripped-off most of the native cover crop, leaving unproductive ground.
The horses seen in the CBS photo are just part of the approximate 900 wild horses that are no longer living naturally as ‘wild and free’ horses pursuant to the intent of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFRHBA). Now, as captive horses, they must be cared for at great taxpayer expense. The BLM pays the Haythorn family $1 million annually to feed these now captive horses, which is just part of BLM’s flawed off-range grazing program nationally, costing taxpayers nearly $100 million annually.
Adding financial insult to injury, these horses will also require additional care that was unneeded when they were wild, including but not limited to population control. This is a human-created problem, because these horses are not living among their co-evolved predators (bears, mountain lions, wolves and coyotes). Science proves that wild horse must be allowed to live in immediate proximity to their co-evolved natural predators that provide the critical benefits of evolutionary Natural Selection. This evolved natural process eliminates sick, diseased and elderly horses from the herd, thereby maintaining the genetic vigor of the species.
Therefore, as is the BLM’s reckless practice, these captive horses will be treated with dangerous chemicals, like ‘PZP’ and ‘GonaCon’ that are posited as so-called ‘contraception’. The use of PZP and/or GonaCon is by definition Selective Breeding, which science shows leads to genetic erosion and ultimately genetic defects. Additionally, taxpayers are further burdened with the BLM’s national wild horse contraception program, costing tens of millions in additional expenses that must be shouldered by taxpayers.
The photo above shows wild horses naturally grazing in a forest. They are Nature’s keystone herbivores and they symbiotically reduce and maintain wildfire fuels (grass and brush). Their wildfire grazing is ‘symbiotic’ because horses, with a simple stomach, pass most of the seeds they consume undigested and intact, and able to germinate in their droppings. This is naturally-evolved process that helps complete the life-cycle of the grasses and plants horses consume by spreading the undigested seeds in their humus and biome-rich dung.
Wild horses also make trees more fire resistant by reducing flashy grass and brush wildfire fuels under and around trees, as well as breaking-off dead limbs from the trees (aka: fire ladders) via scratching, as well as fertilizing these trees, which they also use for year-round shelter.
Ultimately, keeping wild horses from living in our critical wilderness areas and putting them into captivity in expensive and ecologically obtuse off-range holding is like putting the fire department in jail during wildfire season.
There is a natural, holistic and humane solution to managing America’s wild horses. Learn about a proven solution at https://www.WildHorseFireBrigade.org
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.