Originally published at: Could wild horses save us from wildfires? | Boing Boing
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I remember visiting a nature preserve here several years ago.
The guide mentioned that a couple of times a year, they bring in a small herd of cattle to simulate the effects of the no-longer-present bison that formerly migrated through the area.
They not only ate vegetation, but their hooves would break up the soil a bit, which was important for some of the plants.
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Why is CA having a demise in deer? Kansas did have a deer population collapse over 100 years ago, but it started to slowly come back after the 50s and now we have ~700,000.
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Sounds good but horses don’t eat much brush or saplings and that’s the main fuel for wildfires.
They would have to bring in feral goats.
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Hmm. Capra goats were never part of North America though, and I wonder if they aren’t dangerous to some brush species. Horses were during the last ice age, and then again more recently – we know the ecosystems can survive in their presence.
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Goats As A Service.
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Plants will grow, and something will consume them.
Wouldn’t they need to release hundreds of thousands of horses to make up for the declining deer population? And if one was going to go through that much effort why not embark on a program to increase the population of native herbivores instead?
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