By Michelle Gough, Co-Founder, Treasurer & Executive Board Member, Wild Horse Fire Brigade | Partner and long-term research collaborator with Capt. William E. Simpson II
In the summer of 2018, as the 38,000-acre Klamathon Fire raged across the California-Oregon border, Capt. William E. Simpson II made a decision that would change the trajectory of wild horse conservation and wildfire thinking in North America. Defying evacuation orders, he stayed with his wife Laura to defend their ranch—and to observe the free-roaming wild horses that had become his life’s work. What he documented was not theory. It was a living demonstration of nature’s own fire brigade in action.
Areas grazed year-round by the herd created natural firebreaks. Fine fuels were reduced. The fire’s advance slowed in key zones. Grazed landscapes became safe havens for CAL FIRE crews and equipment. Simpson, serving as a volunteer technical advisor on the fire line for nine days, became the first researcher to systematically document wild horse behavior during an active catastrophic wildfire. The horses remained calm, grazed strategically, and moved with purpose rather than panic—behaviors shaped by deep evolutionary adaptations to fire-prone landscapes.
This was the spark for the Wild Horse Fire Brigade (WHFB), the nonprofit Simpson founded in 2022. Its mission: protect and restore free-roaming cultural-heritage wild horses while harnessing their natural grazing to reduce wildfire fuels, restore ecosystems, and offer a humane, cost-effective alternative to the BLM’s costly cycle of roundups and long-term holding.
William E. Simpson II’s Leadership and Empirical Credentials
WHFB is led by a man with unmatched on-the-ground credentials. Simpson has spent over 12 years—more than 25,000 hours—immersed in Goodall-method observational study of approximately 120–200 free-roaming wild horses at Wild Horse Ranch in the Soda Mountain Wilderness. This is not casual watching; it is rigorous, year-round ethological research in a predator-wilderness context, tracking generations of horses, their social structures, behaviors, and ecological interactions.
His background is profoundly multi-disciplinary: formal training and applied work in chemistry, physics, botany, meteorology, and biology; inventions and complex systems development in software, hydraulics, and aerodynamics; careers as a Master SCUBA Diver, commercial pilot (turbine planes and helicopters), forester-logger, rancher, and retired U.S. Merchant Marine Captain (Master Mariner). He has authored over 500 articles and books, produced award-winning documentaries, and seen his work featured and verified across major national media.
WHFB’s board includes university professors and high-level professionals. The organization stands alone among wild horse nonprofits: it owns, manages, and studies a free-roaming, naturally breeding herd in wilderness conditions while prioritizing rewilding, genetic conservation, natural band structures, and measurable ecosystem services over sanctuaries or fertility-control-focused models.
The 2018 Klamathon Fire: A Natural Experiment, Not Theory
During the Klamathon Fire, Simpson’s observations revealed that year-round grazing by free-roaming wild horses had created roughly 5,000 acres of reduced-fuel zones that helped protect his ranch, surrounding forests, and communities. These grazed areas provided critical safe zones for firefighters. This was not laboratory speculation—it was real-time data from a catastrophic North American wildfire event, corroborated by on-the-ground responders.
Simpson’s subsequent “Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan” (the Wild Horse Fire Brigade concept) proposes the humane transfer of excess horses from BLM holding facilities to suitable public and wilderness lands. There, as keystone herbivores, they reduce fine fuels (grasses and brush), fragment fuel continuity, create natural firebreaks, reseed the landscape through manure (hindgut fermenters pass viable seeds), build soil carbon, and support biodiversity—all while dramatically lowering the taxpayer burden of perpetual roundups and holding.
This work has been highlighted in major outlets, including a detailed EPOCH TIMES feature (January 2025), AM BEST TV reports emphasizing insurance-loss reduction through fuel mitigation, an in-depth SOU cable TV “Passion” interview with Dave Larson, NPR coverage, The Guardian, and others.
A Flawed Critique: The Armchair Assessment That Ignores Primary Evidence
A recent article titled “Are Wild Horses Really Nature’s Firefighters? Do Wild Horses Reduce Wildfire Risk? An Assessment of the Scientific Evidence” (published July 2026 on equusferus.photography) attempts to dismiss the WHFB concept as an “untested fire management hypothesis” lacking academic or peer-reviewed backing applicable to North America. The piece, authored by Meredith Hudes-Lowder (DNP, NYC medical practitioner and wild horse photographer offering pro-bono advocacy research), relies heavily on secondary literature reviews, BLM operational reports from post-fire emergency gathers, and studies of managed horse grazing in fenced Mediterranean ecosystems (Galicia and Portugal).
This critique fundamentally misunderstands both the science of observation and the ecology of free-roaming wild horses in North American landscapes. It understates—or ignores—Simpson’s unique empirical experience, the primary data from the Klamathon natural experiment, and the broader principles of herbivory and fire ecology. It is heavily influenced by BLM institutional narratives aligned with “Path Forward”-style plans that seek to reduce on-range wild horse populations to low AML targets through gathers, fertility control, and sterilization—often benefiting livestock grazing interests and contractors while externalizing massive holding costs to taxpayers.
Mismatched Comparators and Selective Framing
The article leans on European studies of managed (often fenced, semi-domestic or feral) horses in Mediterranean scrub-grass systems. These studies show that horses, under controlled stocking rates and often in combination with cattle, browsers, prescribed fire, and mechanical treatment, can reduce grass height and fine fuels. Effects on woody plants are more limited, and outcomes are site-specific.
These are useful but poor direct analogs for the WHFB proposal. North American fuels in many wildfire-prone areas include drought-stressed shrubs (sagebrush), pinyon-juniper, cheatgrass annuals, and forest understories—complex systems driven by drought, wind, topography, and ignition sources. Free-roaming wild horses under natural selection in open wilderness behave differently from managed animals in fenced enclosures. WHFB does not claim horses alone are a universal solution; it positions them as a self-sustaining, low-cost keystone component especially valuable in remote wilderness where mechanical treatments and prescribed fire face legal, logistical, and cost barriers.
Fires in HMAs and Post-Fire Gathers: Misleading Logic
The critique cites large fires that burned through Herd Management Areas (HMAs) followed by BLM emergency gathers (Soda Fire 2015, Jakes Fire 2012, Jump Fire 2024, and others). This is presented as evidence against horse mitigation. The logic is inverted. Many HMAs have experienced years of population suppression via BLM gathers and fertility control to meet artificially low AML targets. Low or fragmented horse numbers cannot create landscape-scale fuel reduction. Post-fire gathers reflect BLM policy and operational response to lost forage—not proof that functional horse densities would fail to mitigate fuels beforehand. Horses can even aid recovery by selectively grazing invasive regrowth.
Salt River Example
Claims that the Salt River (Arizona) horses have been “debunked” by subsequent fires (Cactus, Dome, Christmas, SR-87) similarly miss the mark. Fires occur in fire-prone ecosystems. Horse presence does not create an absolute fireproof barrier under extreme conditions. Reports show horses often coexisted safely near active fires through grazing and behavioral adaptations. This is not rigorous experimental debunking—it is selective anecdote.
Localized Effects and the Need for Studies
The article acknowledges that horse impacts can be localized and influenced by forage availability and management. This is true of virtually all ecological interventions. WHFB explicitly targets appropriate habitats and densities for meaningful, scalable effects over time. The call for “additional well-designed studies” is fair—yet the WHFB framework already advocates for monitored pilot programs precisely to generate that peer-reviewed North American data. Science begins with careful observation of real events (Klamathon) and hypothesis generation, followed by testing. Labeling an observationally grounded proposal “untested” while ignoring its empirical foundation is disingenuous.
Expanding the Evidence: Cheatgrass, Carbon, and Cattle Comparisons
Wild horses offer particular advantages with invasive cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), a primary fine-fuel driver of fast-spreading western fires. As hindgut fermenters, horses digest fibrous material effectively and can crop grasses closely. Targeted grazing by equids (and other livestock) has been shown in multiple studies to reduce cheatgrass density, seed production, and mulch accumulation when timed and stocked appropriately—favoring perennial natives and reducing fuel continuity.
Comparisons to cattle are instructive. Cattle (ruminants) digest more seeds, offering less natural reseeding benefit. Their grazing patterns and selectivity differ; unmanaged or poorly managed cattle can facilitate cheatgrass invasion through disturbance of native perennials and have been linked in some research to greater riparian impacts. Cattle often require intensive rotational management, fencing, and water developments. Wild horses in natural systems create trails, wallows, and vegetation mosaics that fragment fuels with minimal infrastructure—ideal for wilderness and remote public lands.
Carbon and soil benefits are significant and often overlooked. By consuming vegetation that would otherwise burn, wild horses prevent the release of stored carbon as CO2 and toxic smoke particulates. Their manure deposits carbon compounds and humus into soils, enhancing sequestration and supporting microbial life. This reseeding function aids post-fire and annual vegetation recovery, further locking carbon into living biomass and soils. In an era of escalating wildfire emissions, this represents a powerful nature-based climate solution.
Global Proof Points: Success in Spain and Portugal
Recent work in Iberia strongly supports the core principles behind WHFB. In Spain’s Galicia region, Galician feral horses (including Garrano lineages) are actively promoted as “firefighters” by groups like Fundación Montescola. By intensively grazing gorse and undergrowth, they reduce combustible biomass and lower wildfire risk in shrub-dominated landscapes. Remote-sensing studies have quantified reduced rates of fire spread in grazed versus ungrazed areas.
In Portugal’s Greater Côa Valley, a three-year rewilding study (Ribeiro et al., 2025, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution) examined the transition to semi-wild Sorraia horse grazing at two sites. Horse grazing significantly reduced the height and quantity of grass fuels, lowering local fire hazard and the risk of catastrophic wildfire outbreaks. Biodiversity indicators improved in key metrics (higher forb-to-grass ratios supporting pollinators). While impact on woody shrubs was more limited at the studied densities, the fine-fuel reduction was clear and directly relevant to grass-driven fire behavior. These efforts demonstrate that (semi-)wild horse grazing is an effective, nature-based tool for biomass and fuel management—paralleling and validating the WHFB approach of deploying free-roaming wild horses in appropriate North American landscapes for sustained, low-cost fuel reduction.
Ecological Wisdom from Leading Scientists
As renowned ecologist Dr. William J. Ripple and colleagues have extensively documented, large wild herbivores are critical keystone species whose decline profoundly alters ecosystems. Their absence contributes to fuel accumulation and homogenized landscapes that intensify wildfire risks. Restoring functional populations of large herbivores—through rewilding and appropriate management—is increasingly recognized as a vital strategy for rebuilding landscape resilience and “devolving” the conditions that drive catastrophic fire.
A Path Forward, Not a Hypothesis to Dismiss
The WHFB concept is not a fringe idea. It is a pragmatic, observationally validated proposal rooted in 12+ years of immersive research, real-world performance during the Klamathon Fire, supporting ecological principles, and emerging global evidence from rewilding projects. It offers a genuine win-win: reduced wildfire fuels and suppression costs, lower taxpayer burdens from holding facilities, restored ecosystem processes, preserved genetic and cultural heritage of American wild horses, and a humane alternative to mass removal and sterilization programs.
Critics who dismiss it from armchairs, relying on mismatched studies and institutional reports, do a disservice to science and public safety. The evidence—from the fire line in 2018 to the hillsides of Iberia—supports moving forward with well-designed, monitored pilots on suitable public lands.
Wild horses are not the sole answer to wildfire. But they are a powerful, self-sustaining, ecologically appropriate part of the solution that has been overlooked for far too long. The Wild Horse Fire Brigade stands ready to lead that evidence-based transition.
References
Simpson, W. E., II. Wild Horse Fire Brigade advocacy materials and preliminary findings on wild horse impacts on wilderness landscape and wildfire. Wild Horse Fire Brigade. https://www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org/
Haas, M. (2024, February 16). Could Wild Horses Help Fight Wildfires? Reasons to be Cheerful. https://reasonstobecheerful.world/could-wild-horses-help-fight-wildfires/
Jones, B. (2025, January). Wild Horses Can Help Prevent Wildfires, Advocates Say. The Epoch Times. https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/can-wild-horses-help-prevent-wildfires-5781613
O’Neill, S. (2022, October 30). Preventing wildfire with the Wild Horse Fire Brigade. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/10/30/1131042723/preventing-wildfire-with-the-wild-horse-fire-brigade
Mitaru, I. (2023, July 27). Are America’s wild horses the answer to wildfires? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/27/are-americas-wild-horses-the-answer-to-wildfires-a-photo-essay-aoe
Ripple, W. J., et al. (2015). Collapse of the world’s largest herbivores. Science Advances. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1400103 (and related trophic cascade and megafauna work emphasizing large herbivore roles in ecosystem structure and fuel dynamics).
Ribeiro, I., et al. (2025). Semi-wild horse grazing as a rewilding strategy: Assessing effects on vegetation structure and composition in the Côa Valley, Portugal. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2025.1596560/full
Janeiro-Otero, A., et al. (2024). Application of remote sensing to understand the role of Galician feral horses in the biomass reduction of a shrub-grassland-dominated landscape. BMC Ecology and Evolution. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12862-024-02276-5
Global Rewilding Alliance / Fundación Montescola coverage on Galician wild horses as firefighters. https://globalrewilding.earth/fundacion-montescola-wild-horses-in-spain-are-firefighters/
AM BEST TV reports on Wild Horse Fire Brigade and wildfire fuel mitigation (2023). Various AM BEST features highlighting innovative approaches to reducing insured losses.
BLM emergency gather reports (Soda Fire, Jakes Fire, etc.) – cited in critique but reinterpreted here as operational data reflecting suppressed populations rather than disproof of mitigation potential.
Supporting literature on herbivory, cheatgrass management via targeted grazing, and large herbivore effects on fuels (various rangeland and fire ecology sources, including studies showing equids’ effectiveness on fine fuels and comparisons to ruminant grazing impacts).
Note: Additional peer-reviewed and observational sources on wildfire herbivory, carbon sequestration via grazing systems, and cheatgrass ecology are available via WHFB resources and academic databases. WHFB welcomes rigorous, independent monitoring of pilot programs to expand the peer-reviewed North American dataset.
Excellent and factual article keep up the good fight 👏