Sandusky 1

Sandusky 1

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Wild horses in high desert country, good or bad for the environment and wildlife, David Sparks sportsmen spotlight. Not long ago, I did a story with Bill Simpson, who has a ranch up in northeast California, and he is a real advocate for having wild horses in that country. He argues that they reduce predation on prey wildlife populations because they serve as a source of prey themselves. Thought his thinking was pretty good. But then I heard from Ken Sandusky, who is the public affairs officer on the Modoc National Forest. Same region, and Ken told me that the presence of wild horses isn't all rosy. Water is really the limiting factor. Access to water holes on the Devil's Garden. This is high desert environment when you're talking about migratory pronghorn mule deer and elk, when horses are congregating around waterholes the way they’re want to do, they do reduce the availability to the other critters on the landscape. Additionally, the removal of vegetation the broadleaf forbes and stuff that browsers rely on specifically in those waterholes is an issue where I can show you places where the ranchers had built exclosures to keep cattle out of these delicate riparian areas. Those fences just don't hold up to horses. They lean on them until the t-stakes break off at ground level and then they go in and basically remove almost all of the vegetation from the spring heads and other protected riparian areas. We've seen evidence of springs that stop flowing due to wild horse overuse. So there are both sides of the story and wild horses can be adopted through Ken's agency.
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