Wild Horses Could Keep Wildfire At Bay

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Under a 1971 Congressional Act, the Bureau of Land Management has the right to round up wild horses on public lands. Oftentimes, those horses are shipped to holding facilities, where they are kept in captivity and separated from their families. William Simpson wants to change that. He wants to deploy the wild horses across public lands, to live and graze — and ultimately, prevent the worst wildfires.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:04.6	Hey, Deuterinos, it's your girl Emily Kwong back from a little vacation to the wilds
0:10.3	of Maine.
0:11.3	And we're going to keep it wild today with reporter, shortwave guest editor and lifelong
0:15.8	hip-a-file aka lover of horses, Stephanie O'Neill.
0:19.3	Hey, Steph.
0:20.3	Hey, Emily.
0:21.3	Hi.
0:22.3	So I've been taking a look at two big problems in the American West.
0:25.6	One is the wildfires which have gotten really bad in recent years.
0:28.8	And totally separately, but I'll bring them together, is the cost of caring for captured
0:34.0	wild horses.
0:36.2	Capture wild horses.
0:37.2	If they're wild, why are they in captivity?
0:39.5	So an act passed by Congress in 1971 to protect America's wild horses and burrows puts the
0:45.4	Bureau of Land Management in charge of these animals on most public land.
0:49.8	And whenever the agency determines there are too many in a given area, it can order roundups.
0:54.2	Okay.
0:55.2	And what happens to those horses?
0:56.7	You find new homes through the BLM's Wild Horse adoption program, one of which Emily
1:01.2	I adopted about 20 years ago.
1:02.9	That's so cute.
	...

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