RANCHER SAYS WILD HORSES COULD HELP PREVENT WILDFIRES

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https://www.kdrv.com/content/news/Rancher-Says-Wild-Horses-Could-Help-Prevent-Wildfires-482987721.html

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Naturalist Rancher Bill Simpson said it's a plan that will save lives without hurting taxpayers' wallets. He and his wife, Laura, have been taking care of and protecting a group of wild horses in the Cascade Siskiyou Mountains for nearly five years. Simpson said about 30 years ago, there was enough deer out there to keep the grass grazed down, but that is no longer the case.

"With as much grass and brush as we're seeing from the lack of deer, we're going to continue to have these outrageous fires," Simpson said. 

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He said they are able to help in more ways than one.

"They can go into a fragile ecosystem and when they eat the plants and grasses and flowers, most of the seeds are deposited back onto the land intact," Simpson said. 

He said that's not the case for other grazers like cattle and sheep. He said getting them out in the forests is the answer, where they won't cost taxpayers anything while helping reduce fuels.



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[applegrove]

1. Wild horses have lived untouched on Sable Island, Nova Scotia, for hundreds of years.

The seals leave fertilizer that makes grasses grow, sable island is a sand bar, that the horses then eat. No vets or human intervention since 1760 or so. Though they do get studied. Their population self regulates. Cows and other farm animals did not survive. The horses did long term.