Wild Horse Management Group Obtains Ownership of Wild Horse Herd
For the past eleven-years, Ethologist William E. Simpson II has been living-among and studying a herd of 200 cultural-heritage horses in the wilderness on the California side of the Oregon-California border.
Simpson is the founder and Executive Director of the ‘Wild Horse Fire Brigade LLC’, a wild horse advocacy and management group.
In March 2022, Siskiyou County officially recognized, by Letter, the ownership of the local herd of cultural heritage horses by Simpson, Michelle Gough and Wild Horse Fire Brigade, LLC, as well as management authority, over the herd.
This herd were considered as 'feral' (without ownership) horses by the Siskiyou County Agricultural Commissioner who under CA Law has jurisdiction over all feral horses in Siskiyou County, CA. In its formal letter to Mr. Simpson, the County Agricultural Commissioner recognizes the work and significant cash investments that Mr. Simpson has made over the past many years in the oversight, care and study of the local horses.
Simpson has been studying the local wild horses using an observational method he calls the ‘Goodall Method’ in honor of Dr. Jane Goodall, who pioneered the paradigm of close-observational study as an embedded human observer during her 1960’s study of the apes in Gombe Africa.
“The ‘Goodall Method’ allows for the best way to actually see and understand even the smallest details of the nuanced behaviors of wild horses and their interactions within their home-range ecosystems,” said Simpson.
In 2014, Simpson took up residence and established his ranch-research site on the edge of the Soda Mountain Wilderness area, part of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, and began studying the local wild horses. These local wild horses were considered *‘feral’ (*without ownership) by local authorities and are not part of any Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse herd or part of a recognized Horse Management Area (HMA).
According to documented history compiled by Simpson, and the peer-reviewed, published doctoral dissertation of Dr. Yvette 'Running Horse' Collin, this herd of cultural-heritage horses descends wild horses observed by Sir Francis Drake during his exploration of the pacific coast of northern California and southwestern Oregon in 1580. Of course there has been some domestic bloodlines introduced into the herd by released U.S. Cavalry horses as well as some feral domestic horses, which are being identified and removed (re-located) from the herd in order to preserve the greatest percentage of historic bloodlines.
William has extensive documentation about wild horses and their ability to assist with mitigating wildfires by rewilding horses into vacant wilderness areas unsuited for invasive species livestock (cattle & sheep), beyond areas of economic conflicts. It was this data, which can be examined at WildHorseFireBrigade.org, that moved Simpson to create the Wild Horse Fire Brigade. Interviews can be arranged through Media@WildHorseFireBrigade.org.
Below are photos of our herd taken by Michelle Gough.
