A fire scar promotes the regrowth of grass, Ponderosa pines and other plants below surviving trees in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, where the Heber Wild Horse Territory is home to many feral horses in the high central Arizona area, on Sept. 26, 2019.
Work has begun to draft proposed actions that balance the feral horse, wildlife, and land management of the forest and private cattle operations. The wildlife in this area also includes elk, mule deer, pronghorn sheep, javelina, mountain lions, and black bear. Of these, horse are the only ones who are not prey to the mountain lion and black bears, and cannot currently be culled as are elk. Also, cattle, elk and horses graze on the same type of grass, a challenge to manage the animals who feed on it, and also for the grass which also needs water in an increasingly drought-prone area. The horse population has increased the demand for water from these sites that did not originally account for them. For more information about the Wild Horse and Burro program, please go to fs.fed.us/wild-horse-burro.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung. Original public domain image from Flickr