Written by John Cox, MFA, Cascade Mountains

Currently we have a multilayered situation ongoing on our public lands and forestry lands. This becomes an excellent opportunity to start showing the science, credible science, that has been ignored for decades now, by both. Exploitation of both is not an option, but a matter of destruction-only.

At the advent of the Bureau of Land Management signing MOU’S with cattle ranchers and their mythical and pretend science that favors cattle over all else in America, it is simply time to start making the public aware of the difference between credible science and non-credible, as government / non-profit exploitative science, pushes forth agendas of God only knows what.

Today we can now start exploring the situation, dynamics of it all and start with this discussion, of “all life on this planet is connected”, and something we must understand in order to understand the evolution of such situations as wild horses, wolves, bear, cougar, coyote, and other Keystone predators – predator/prey relationships, so much required in our ecological habitats today.

I mentioned earlier we follow the conifer growth (another from the field notes articles) and evolution from centuries past, here in the Pacific Northwest, for example, and due to the conifer’s complex physiology. They generally favor colder and drier environments, in essence, survive where many other plants cannot. This marks situations that have cultivated into diversity in many wildlife and terrestrial regions. Keep in mind conifers represent less than 1% of all plant species, yet comprised of extensive forests which constitute, by area, 30% of the Earth’s forested lands.

On a regional scale the same predictable nature of conifer distribution holds true and above 4000 feet, where conifers comprise the majority of over-story vegetation. However, near sea level from for example the Klamath knot northward into Canada and Alaska, conifers blanket the landscape, and often seen southward along the Pacific.

All of this conifer distribution, centers around a diversity of wildlife, as well as terrestrial ecology. This is where we begin to understand how not just Wild Horses, but the Keystone Predators from long ago, remained in existence over the centuries. Yes, (i.e., as previously discussed) on islands and within the Pacific slope, where Glacial Ice Formations (as credible science shows us) was not plentiful whatsoever, but lacked ice throughout the Ice Age. At the same time, “no scientific evidence” has been found to show hunters had killed-off Wild Horses throughout this same history. None!

But we also must keep in mind there is no evidence, scientifically, that has been found that Wild Horses, for example, went extinct whatsoever along the Pacific slope or along the western range, during an Ice Age Era nor before or afterward. This is all inclusive of ancient Americas, up to today’s Wild Horse population on our public lands and forested lands. Where the conifers, all conifers, are located, Wild Horses and a diversity of wildlife and terrestrial ecology existed then, just as right now. Interesting, as the Klamath Knot is, currently, the same as it was way back then, in centuries’ past – the exact same, inclusive of the Blue Green Algae that exists, still, in Klamath Lake. Wild Horses, before humankind existed, roamed these areas.

But, our government with the help of many nonprofits and other special-interest groups, are decimating these ancient forests as well as our these ancient lands, for nothing more than a hamburger. These are ancient lands, and ancient ecological habitats, that are being destroyed alongside our Wild Horses. Each serve as a microcosm of the tragedy that is happening in America right now, and within a corrupted government that is doing it.

Quite by accident we started to study the situation of the conifer circumstance, that profoundly created through nature, the situation of diversity of a terrestrial environment that supported wildlife, inclusive of Wild Horses, 100%. Natural grasslands on ancient islands in the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Slope, abundant.

In terms of pure biomass (i.e., a measure of plant mass in tons of living plant material per hectare acre), redwood forests for example, contain the greatest amount on earth, rivaled only by other forests further north in the Pacific Northwest. The average old-growth redwood forest on the north coast of California holds 4500 to 8000 tons/acre. Compare that to the Pacific Northwest temperate rain forest having 2202 to 4500 tons/acre or an eastern temperate hardwood forest with about 900 tons/acre, and suddenly it is easy to see what one can experience on a visit to the redwoods is tremendous.

Yes, placing our government in check, and demanding truth, works – in particular when we all see what it is they are destroying, for cattle or other get-rich-quick scams. Perhaps it is best to phrase it this way, “. . . conifers are a lens or comprehending a real – world example of extended survival across a dynamic landscape.” And what consists of this dynamic landscape? Our wildlife habitats. Our Wild Horse habitats. Our terrestrial habitats. Our oceanic and river habitats. And the air we breathe. All survival dynamics for the human species, as well as the diversity of wildlife and vegetation it all supports 24-7, day in and day out.

Suddenly it becomes all too clear, we start to understand, we are discussing here much more than Wild Horse survival. The Wild Horses’ simply a microcosm of all that is ongoing around us right now.

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