Leading Equine Scientist Joins Wild Horse Fire Brigade's Team To Help Save Wild Horses Via Nature-Based Solution
Professor Wayne Linklater, PhD
Side by side comparison between current BLM wild horse management vs. Wild Horse Fire Brigade's re-wilding and relocating model
Wild Horses are seen grazing dry wildfire fuels as smoke from the 2022 McKinney Fire looms in the background sky
A family of wild horses grazing wildfire fuels. Unlike ruminant grazers (cattle, sheep and goats) wild horses Don Not digest seeds of native plants, thus completing their life-cycles supporting other co-evolved fauna
Simpson served as local knowledge advisor to CALFIRE commanders during the deadly 38,000-acre 2018 Klamathon Fire
Wild Horse Fire Brigade's nature-based solution for wild horse management that reduces catastrophic wildfire has gained international attention and acclaim
Professor Wayne Linklater's training and experience are very substantial:
Professor Linklater trained first in zoology and botany, Wayne completed two graduate degrees during the 1990s: a Masters in freshwater ecology and a Ph.D. in the behavior, ecology and management of wild horses.
After a Millennium Research Fellowship for rhinoceroses’ conservation in Southern Africa with the San Diego Zoo (2001-2005), he took a permanent academic position in the School of Biology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, to teach and investigate a diversity of topics in wildlife biology and management, and develop an interest in the human dimensions of environmental science.
Wayne became the Director of their Centre for Biodiversity & Restoration Ecology at Victoria University (2012-2018). He received the Peter Nelson Memorial Trophy for leadership of research and teaching on vertebrate pest management (2018), and the Ecological Society of New Zealand’s annual Science Communication Award (2015). He is the author of over 100 scientific publications and reports, principle investigator on over $3M in research grants, and holds a US patent for novel chemical lures for rats (2021).
Seeking new challenges and adventures, professionally and personally for himself and family, Wayne accepted the position as Chair (Head) of the Environmental Studies Department at California State University – Sacramento in 2019. There he is part of a $2M initiative to better measure air quality pollutants in underserved neighborhoods in Sacramento City. He is also currently writing a book about New Zealand’s wild horses with the working title ‘Wild Horses of the Last Land – a scientific, personal and political journey to reimagine our future relationship with horses’.
Deb Ferns, MBA and President of Wild Horse Fire Brigade said, "Speaking for our all-volunteer board of directors and advisors, we are very pleased and excited that Professor Linklater see's the value and application of our nature-based solution for the plight of American wild horses and the research opportunities that are available though the groundwork of our founder, William E. Simpson II.
Simpson, the executive director of Wild Horse Fire Brigade, was recently featured in an article at The Guardian titled "Are America’s wild horses the answer to wildfires? – a photo essay".
Through an ongoing dialog with Professor Julie Murphree, an Advisory Board member of Wild Horse Fire Brigade and teaching professor at Arizona State University, Professor Linklater learned about Simpson's full-time 9-year study (2014-present) of free-roaming wild horses in a wilderness area using what Simpson calls the "Goodall Method" of close observational wildlife study, in honor of famed ethologist Jane Goodall, PhD.
During the same period, in 2018, Simpson personally observed and documented how wildfire grazing by wild horses was beneficial to the wildfire suppression efforts of CALFIRE during the deadly Klamathon Fire while being the local knowledge advisor to CALFIRE on the fire-line for 9-days.
Learn More at AM BEST TV's production: https://www.ambest.com/video/video.aspx?s=1&rc=wildhorses323
Professor Linklater said, "I was attracted to the work of the Wild Horse Fire Brigade because it demands a deeper understanding of wild horse ecology to meet the challenges of managing landscapes and their wildlife. I am convinced that those challenges require new frameworks and approaches, not just more information. We already have a lot of the information needed to solve the problem. What is required is new questions. The Wild Horse Fire Brigade is asking new, more interesting questions. It is a great privilege to be able to help find the answers”.
Learn more about Wild Horse Fire Brigade at its website: https://www.WildHorseFireBrigade.org
William E. Simpson II
Wild Horse Fire Brigade
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'Rewilding’ Horses Aims to Mitigate Wildfires, Reduce Insured Losses
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