Northern California Wild Horse Non-Profit Owner Looks to Make Federal Change Through BLM

A common sense solution for the wild horse 'problem'.

NOTE: this article and video was originally published to KoloTV.com on December 12, 2024. It was written by Taylor Burke.

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - William Simpson, the owner of the non-profit Wild Horse Fire Brigade, has been nominated as the director of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.

In 2014, former scientist William Simpson II, bought a ranch in Northern California. It wasn’t long before he realized he was sharing his property with hundreds of wild horses. Simpson immediately fell in love with the wild creatures, so, he began to study the horses by living among them. Similar to what Jane Goodall did with apes.

“It’s an immersion method to really learn from them, and not by a book written by someone who looked at them through binoculars,” said Simpson.

Part of what he found is that the horse’s grazing method made wildfires less intense as they were eating dry grass that would typically fuel a fire. That’s when Simpson realized he needed to look at the environmental benefits of having wild horses taken from urban neighborhoods and placed into appropriate wilderness areas. It was then he created the Wild Horse Fire Brigade.

“American iconic horses are critical to our heritage, they’re part of who we are,” said Simpson. “Once you understand the benefits they give to the landscape when they’re in the right place, you have an ‘aha moment’ and see these horses can provide $500 million in value to American taxpayers.”

Simpson’s method is becoming more popular and has even received approval from Nevada Lands Council and Elko County. The three agencies hope to build upon this paradigm, to prevent what they say is the unnecessary, inhumane, costly incarceration, and sterilization of American wild horses. Simpson is now looking to use the same methods on a federal level. Recently nominated by the BLM be the Director of the Wild Horse and Burro program, Simpson is hoping to make change, from within. Starting with the way the roundups are handled.

“What they’re doing is obsolete and archaic,” said Simpson.

Rather than using helicopters and placing wild horses in pens to be resold, Simpson wants to transplant the horses in areas where they would be away from urban conflict by working with local advocates who know where family bands already reside. With 2/3 of America’s horses residing in Nevada, that could mean moving some out of state.

“Let them be wild and free somewhere else. We don’t need to force them into a bad situation that caused genetic bottlenecking and genetic erosion,” Simpson said.

If you’d like to learn more about Simpson and his proposed policies, you can do so, right here.