On Sunday Jan 5th, 2025, Epoch Times came out with an article written by Brad Jones, titled:
“Wild Horses Can Help Prevent Wildfires, Advocates Say”
A shocking reality was revealed by Ray Haupt’s quoted opinion from the article (see below). It seems that Siskiyou County Supervisor Haupt fails to realize that extensively published, peer-reviewed
scientific studies show that over 66% of all wildfires involved grass and brush, not trees and forests! Of course ‘horses and cows don’t eat trees’ as Ray Haupt quipped in his Epoch Times comment, but they sure do eat grass and brush!
Below is a quote from Science News: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/grassland-forest-homes-us-fires
“For the new study, Radeloff and his colleagues analyzed three decades of data on wildfire occurrence, land use and housing, hoping to learn more about what factors fuel such destructive blazes.”
“The team found that about 337,000 square kilometers of grasslands and shrublands burned from 1990 to 2020, compared with about 144,000 square kilometers burned by forest fires. Though forest fires were about twice as likely as grassland fires to burn down homes they encountered, the much larger expanse burned by grassland and shrubland fires helped make them more destructive overall.”
“Grazing Grievances (quoted from titled story by Brad Jones at Epoch Times)
Siskiyou County Supervisor Ray Haupt told The Epoch Times that many historic grazing allotments on public lands aren’t being used, mainly because of state regulations for sediment in streams.
As the owner of a forest and natural resources consulting business and member of the California Professional Foresters Association, with a degree in natural resources management and forestry, Haupt said he supports “anything that reduces fuel” to help suppress the rapid spread of wildfires.
But, he said, the ecological systems involved in grazing are complex, with no “one size fits all” solution.
Grazing is effective in dry areas with grasses underneath the tree layer, but not in heavily forested areas with high tree density where “horrendous fires” are occurring, he said.
“Horses and cows don’t eat trees,” he said.
Looking at the big picture of forest fire prevention, Haupt said, livestock grazing by itself is “not going to do much.” — end quote.
Ray Haupt’s opinion is soundly debunked by the fact that dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies state the following:
‘When there is a collapse of an *herbivory [*critters that eat grass & brush], catastrophic wildfire evolves’. – William J. Ripple, PhD Oregon State University Forestry Dept.
examples:
1. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2017.0443
The last quote from Ray Haupt irrationally downplays the obvious, clearly proven scientific fact that, if the decision was simply and only deciding between selective logging or grazing, grazing is the hands-down winner for desired effect.
Mr. Haupt’s opinions, which impact resource management as a County Supervisor, seem to be suffering from a personal conflict of interest in regard to his own personal forestry business, which is not equitable to the greater citizenry of Siskiyou County, California and beyond who are being burned out of their homes and suffering from smoke related maladies and premature death. In fact, there is an argument that could be made that Mr. Haupt should recuse himself from any County Board level decision on wildfire management policies due to his own economically driven conflict of interest.
Let’s look at it in a different way:
If were to hypothetically cut-down every single tree in Siskiyou County, we’d end ‘forest fires’. But then the result would be the kind of catastrophically hot, fast-moving, annually occurring, grass and brush fueled wildfires we’ve already experienced across the U.S. with little or no forest involvement… including those as exampled by; the 38,000-acre Klamathon Fire, the Mill Fire, the Camp Fire (Paradise), Sonoma Fire, Lahaina Fire, McKinney Fire, Marshall Fire, etc… etc…
Fire-grazing using multiple species (cattle, horses, goats and sheep) in species appropriate areas, is the single most important and under-used tool we have to reduce the KEY fuels (grass and brush) is the vast majority of wildfires. Logging is good for the right reasons if executed correctly, but as a wildfire reduction tool, it’s scientifically proven to be less effective than grazing for key wildfire fuels (grass and brush) management.
When I was a boy, my father told me that, “the day you stop learning, is the day you start dying”. Since then, I’ve make it a point in my life to study-hard and learn something new everyday.
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