Feral Horses Can Offer a Wildfire Solution

[sami-joe]

This is the best news I’ve read in years.

Naturalist William Simpson has taken the time and formed a plan to take horses out of the rancher v. wild horse feud and mitigate wildfires in the bargain.

You may have seen this short film about Simpson during Lockdown, I missed it until now. He uses Jane Goodall’s playbook for observation and understanding the bands he studies, and seems to have some political momentum for a house bill. (Though I’m in no position to send money to his organization, as soon as there is a bill, I’ll be on the phone every week to Congress. I’ll just add it to my list of reasons to call my delegation.)

Simpson says his proposal, called the Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan, would help fix that problem. It calls for rewilding and humanely relocating intact families of wild horses away from areas of contention with livestock and other land users and placing them instead onto some of the nation’s 110 million acres of designated wilderness.

n.b. Newb Topic Maker, here. If this doesn’t fit the bill, I’ll pull it.

[frugalannie]

What an interesting topic and idea. Thanks for posting it sami-joe.

It might just work. I’ve read about the reintroduction of apex predators restoring the natural balance in national parks (Yellowstone?), reducing erosion and bringing back a better mix of native plant species. Mustang browsing might be really effective in reducing undergrowth. Please post if you have any further info.

[erinmeri]

I just saw the NPR article myself!

Preventing wildfire with the Wild Horse Fire Brigade

[SusanO]

Yes I tend to agree with this. Wild horses are not native and they tend to be a lot more destructive of habitat than native species and even cattle. I don’t see this as beneficial to the fragile ecosystems and turning an area into a desert isn’t a good solution, either for fires or for wild horses.

[sami-joe]

The part that interests me is the fact that horses evolved on this continent and thrived here through all manner of climate. When people claim that they are invasive or somehow going to damage the environment, it’s like saying I could never live in Africa. All hominin ancestors originated there, migrated for various reasons, and are perfectly suited to return and thrive.

Maybe our local mountain lions would eat fewer cyclists and hikers and stay in the mountains if they had a herd or two of horses to stalk.

[sami-joe]

If you read the whole article, you understand the plan is to put them in places where cattle would not thrive anyway.

What do you mean by “not native”?

Horses evolved on this continent, thrived in huge numbers for 55 million years, (that’s a lot of desertification and ice age phases), and recent fossils in Mexico and New Mexico hint that a small population may have survived the so-called megafauna extinction here about 12,000 years ago.

[Ghazzu]

@sami-joe

What do you mean by “not native”?

One would think the phrase was self-explanatory.
They are an introduced species.

[sami-joe]

If I take the eucalyptus tree sapling down the road from me and plant it in Australia, I am re-introducing a native species, not introducing a non-native one. The DNA is identical.

We have hard evidence modern horses evolved & thrived here for at least 55 million years. As with the eucalyptus, the DNA is identical.

Some paleontologists have begun to doubt that horses disappeared entirely from the Americas. Recent digs in Mexico point in that direction. It’s tough to prove a negative, so I prefer to leave my mind open to the possibility, slight or not, that when Europeans re-introduced horses to this continent, there may still have been equids present. Since they started here, equids had already adapted to this continent well enough to thrive for millions of years, so I’m not sure that any absence, whether a minute or a few thousand years, really matters.

Calling horses native or non-native has become a political shibboleth, and I’m not terribly interested in heading down that road.

[Ghazzu]

@sami-joe

Calling horses native or non-native has become a political shibboleth, and I’m not terribly interested in heading down that road.

But you do it anyway.
I see.

[Texarkana]

@sami-joe

Calling horses native or non-native has become a political shibboleth

Interesting, I don’t see it that way. But I think what you mean is people sometimes use it as an excuse to take action/not take action.

The wild horse conversation is so complex. Staunchly chosing one side means a lack of appreciation for the entire situation. But I do think Simpson’s plan is a compromise.

[Sparrowette]

I really like that idea!

[Sparrowette]

No. Not really. Did you actually read the whole article?

There is genetic data that proves you wrong.

Edit: But in truth, native or non-native - it really has no bearing on if the horses will help prevent fire or not. If they will prevent damage to our homes, save lives, save us all money, be beautiful in the environment, feed predators, scatter native plant species via little balls of compost, (and this isn’t all!), then I’m all for it.

[Ghazzu]

@Sparrowette

No. Not really. Did you actually read the whole article?

There is genetic data that proves you wrong.

I did read the entire article and I saw nothing indicating that the current population of free-roaming horses in North America is not entirely descended from introduced stock.

Camels evolved in North America.
Would you consider the ones roaming the southwest in the late 19th century to be native?

[Sparrowette]

If the genetic date lines up the same, then yes.

[Sparrowette]

From the article:
'“To me that seems like a win-win solution,” says Murphree, who studies wild horses and now volunteers as a board member for Simpson’s non-profit Wild Horse Fire Brigade organization.

Murphree points to fossil evidence, anthropological evidence and new DNA sequencing that links the modern horse to those that originated in North America about 1.7 million years ago.

"We now know horses have evolved on the North American continent," she says. “They should be considered native.”'

“Native” doesn’t necessarily mean that it was here when Columbus got here.

[atlatl]

Will the horses eat cheat grass which is the biggest invasive species problem, I believe, in the American southwest? I don’t think the feral burros eat it so why would the horses?

Yes. horses did evolve on the North American continent, however, IIRC it wasn’t the modern horse Equus but rather Eohippus

[Ghazzu]

Our differences here result from disagreement on the terminology employed.
Therefore I shall refrain from any further beating of this particular deceased equid.

[sami-joe]

Though I’m Team North American Equids From Eohippus On, your witty exit line deserves applause. Cracked. Me. Up.
Thank-you.

[sami-joe]

Experts have found so many various North American equids and variability within named species and types, the experts only have guesses about who is related to whom. It’s a running joke in paleontology.

[Bonnie2]

If cattle do not thrive in an area, I sincerely doubt horses will.