Wild Horse Fire Brigade

EXPOSE' - SHARE: **The Pattern of Emulation — How Larger Organizations Have Followed WHFB’s Pioneering Work Without Credit or Genuine Collaboration**

For more than a decade, the Wild Horse Fire Brigade (WHFB), founded and led by Capt. William E. Simpson II, has distinguished itself through groundbreaking, research-driven work that no other nonprofit in the space had previously achieved.

WHFB is the only organization to have saved an entire herd of 200 cultural-heritage wild horses on their native wilderness home range!

WHFB is also the only nonprofit to have successfully re-wilded nearly 100 wild horses saved from slaughter. (See Images of just some of the rewilded horse now living naturally, truly 'wild & free')

WHFB became the first nonprofit to establish and teach a university-level course in wild horse ecology and ethology (in partnership with Sacramento State University), delivering the course for three years on-site in the wilderness with free-roaming naturally-living wild horses using what William Simpson has coined as the 'Goodall Method'.

Most notably, William Simpson became the first researcher in the world to study wild horse behavior during an active, deadly, catastrophic wildfire from the fire line — spending nine consecutive 16-hour days on the front lines during the 2018 Klamathon Fire (verified on the SOU cable television program 'Passion' by Oregon Department of Forestry District Ranger Dave Larson). This pioneering effort produced several major breakthrough discoveries about wild horse behavior before, during, and after wildfires.

These and many other accomplishments were achieved with far more modest resources than those available to larger organizations that have operated with budgets many times greater for more than two decades.

WHFB’s work is grounded in more than 25,000 hours of immersive, Goodall-style observational research on a free-roaming cultural-heritage herd living naturally in a balanced wilderness ecosystem.

Building on this foundation, WHFB has introduced original, evidence-based approaches to wildfire mitigation, ecosystem restoration, and humane rewilding.

One clear example of its pioneering efforts — and the subsequent pattern of adoption by larger organizations — is its 2022 award-winning music video “We Are the Wild Horses.”

Filmed in the wilderness among naturally living wild horses, this production combined original music, authentic visuals, and educational messaging about wild horses’ ecological and cultural significance. It earned the Winnie Award (top honor in the wild horse music video category) and additional recognition on the film festival circuit.

The video was widely recognized as a groundbreaking use of music and visual storytelling in modern wild horse advocacy — an authentic effort rooted in long-term, on-the-ground research.

The Pattern of Emulation

In the period following WHFB’s prominent music and video releases, several larger organizations in the wild horse advocacy space launched their own music or emotionally driven video projects focused on wild horses, roundups, rewilding, and public lands issues. These efforts often mirrored the format, emotional storytelling approach, and advocacy goals WHFB had already established — sometimes using similar production styles and themes without apparent attribution to the source of the innovative concept.

While raising awareness is valuable, the timing and stylistic similarities have been noted by observers. Larger groups have also shown a pattern of closely monitoring WHFB’s public research, proposals, and initiatives (including wildfire abatement through natural grazing and strategic rewilding concepts) and incorporating parallel elements into their own materials.

What sets WHFB apart is its unique foundation: direct, long-term management and observation of a free-roaming herd in a natural ecosystem, combined with Simpson’s extensive empirical research. Without equivalent on-the-ground experience or the depth of 25,000+ hours of direct study achieved by Simpson, these adaptations often remain surface-level or reframed versions of the original ideas.

Consequences for the Movement

This recurring pattern has contributed to a broader issue in wild horse advocacy: heavy reliance on recycled tactics and reactive messaging rather than sustained original innovation. Decades of this dynamic have left wild horses vulnerable to ongoing challenges, including removals, holding facilities, and fertility control programs, instead of advancing comprehensive, ecosystem-based solutions. The Result - Wild Horses are worse-off today than at any time since the 1971 Act to protect them was passed.

WHFB has responded by taking protective measures with certain original materials — such as limiting public release of the full Wild Horse Fire Brigade Act of 2026 during congressional review — to prevent uncredited adaptation. Offers of genuine collaboration have been extended (including recorded discussions), but they have not consistently led to shared credit, joint initiatives, or integration of WHFB’s foundational research and methods.

Toward Better Advocacy

Raising awareness through music, video, and media is a powerful tool. However, when larger organizations repeatedly build on the pioneering work of smaller, research-focused groups without proper attribution or meaningful partnership, it weakens the movement’s overall credibility and effectiveness.

True progress for wild horses requires original thinking, rigorous science, transparent credit where ideas originate, and authentic collaboration. Rhetoric about “working together” must be backed by actions that respect the source of innovative concepts rather than simply repurposing them.

WHFB remains committed to its evidence-based mission: protecting original research, creative work, and proposals while advocating for practical, nature-based solutions grounded in direct observation and ecological reality.

The horses — and the landscapes they help sustain — deserve advocacy that values integrity, originality, and genuine partnership.

A Note from William Simpson II: "We are always willing to collaborate with honest people who are putting the well-being and sustainable genetic conservation of Wild Horses first. We do not collaborate with people or nonprofits supporting or engaged in the illegal harassment of wild horses via stalking and shooting at them with rifles firing genetic poison darts; in other words, we don't collaborate with people and nonprofits harming wild horses or who are engaged in the genocide of American wild horses"

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr Shawn Ryan Show Shawn Ryan

SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE: *Short-Term Greed vs. Long-Term Devastation: America Is Repeating Brazil’s Amazon Disaster*

In his powerful new article, William E. Simpson II exposes the dangerous psychology driving U.S. public land management: make money and maintain the status quo NOW… deal with the dead Americans, destroyed landscapes, and billions in taxpayer costs LATER.

Just like Brazil’s cattle-driven destruction of the Amazon, federal policies continue to prioritize livestock grazing and expensive reactive wildfire suppression while systematically removing the very animals — wild horses — that could naturally prevent catastrophic fires through grazing.

These native ecosystem engineers reduce fuel loads, create natural firebreaks (as proven during the 2018 Klamathon Fire), restore biodiversity, and protect watersheds — all at a fraction of the cost of current failed approaches. Yet the system keeps spending enormous taxpayer dollars on helicopter gathers, long-term holding, fertility control, and suppression instead of embracing this nature-based solution.

The human cost is already devastating: over 52,000 premature deaths in California alone from wildfire smoke (2008–2018), plus hundreds of billions in damages. Simpson’s 12+ years of immersive research shows a better way is possible.
It’s time to break the short-term thinking cycle.

Rewilding wild horses in appropriate wilderness areas isn’t just ecologically smart — it’s fiscally responsible and life-saving.
What’s your take? Is this short-term profit-and-power mindset costing American lives and lands? Share below.

SHARE & Read the full article here:
https://www.pitchstonewaters.com/america-is-repeating-brazils-amazon-disaster-while-systematically-destroying-the-only-animal-that-could-prevent-it/

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr Shawn Ryan Show Shawn Ryan Michael Gaeta, DAc, MS, CDN Doug Burgum CAL FIRE

America Is Repeating Brazil’s Amazon Disaster — While Systematically Destroying the Only Animal That Could Prevent It This post argues that decades of livestock-focused land management and wildfire suppression have degraded public lands, while wild horses may offer a natural, low-cost solution for reducing fuels, restoring ecosystems, and improving resilience.

INCREDIBLE SAGA of how a man risked his own life as a volunteer on a deadly 38,000-acre wildfire only to lose his wife of 47-years to the deadly toxic smoke! William wanted to help CALFIRE save the forest and the college town of Ashalnd, OR and also study wild horse behavior during an active wildfire. Ashland and the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument were in fact saved from incineration, but William paid a heavy price for more knowledge.

*SHARE* and help others to learn a little more about William Simpson II's personal quest to reduce catastrophic wildfire and save wild horses, and the devastating price he's paid for some of his empirical experience!

Watch this show, and learn what sets William Simpson and our nonprofit apart from the POSERS at the Big-Dollar nonprofits who are merely getting paid by the BLM to kill wild horses slowly, off-camera.

This is important to understand given the Grifters who attempt to emulate William and his hard earned empirical experience and knowledge.

Watch this Cable TV Show 'PASSION' featuring Oregon Dept. of Forestry Ranger Dave Larson (manages 1.8-million acres of Oregon Forest) and William E. Simpson II, who served on the Klamathon Fire fire-line for 9-days as a critical local knowledge volunteer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWJED_fxhyI
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr Doug Burgum Marcus Ball Tirza Eden Jess Harris Siskiyou County Supervisor District 1 Hornbrook Fire Protection District REAL TV Shawn Ryan Shawn Ryan Show National Geographic Animals Angus Taylor MP

Passion: Dave Larson & William Simpson A lively interview ahead in this discussion of wildfire prevention ...

SHARE, SHARE, SHARE !! THIS IS A DRAFT BILL THAT COULD SAVE WILD HORSES!

**They Spend Billions Suppressing Megafires While Ignoring the One Solution That Could Actually Stop Them**

!! LETS GO VIRAL & SAVE AMERICAN WILD HORSES !!

^BREAKING^ — A formal Draft Congressional Bill has been created and submitted to launch the Wild Horse Fire Brigade Pilot Program.

This legislation would authorize the strategic, humane rewilding of wild horses from BLM and USFS holding facilities into suitable remote wilderness areas — where they can naturally reduce catastrophic wildfire fuels and toxic smoke.

Developed by Capt. William E. Simpson II after 12+ years of immersive, year-round research (over 25,000 hours using the “Goodall Method”), the bill is backed by real-world evidence from the 2018 Klamathon Fire, where wild horse grazing created natural fuel breaks that protected landscapes and communities.

Key outcomes the bill aims to deliver:

*Dramatically reduce megafires and the deadly toxic smoke responsible for tens of thousands of premature American deaths every year

*Save taxpayers billions by cutting long-term holding costs and expensive wildfire suppression

*End the cruel cycle of helicopter roundups and chemical sterilization

*Protect watersheds, fisheries, and biodiversity through natural ecosystem processes

On June 16, 2026, the formal cover letter and Draft Bill were sent to the Co-Chairs of the Congressional Wild Horse and B***o Caucus (Rep. Steve Cohen, Rep. Juan Ciscomani, and Rep. David Schweikert), requesting meetings to move this forward.

This is a serious, science-based alternative to decades of failed policies.

Full cover letter is posted in the comments below.
If you believe American lives, taxpayer dollars, and our public lands deserve better than endless suppression and roundups — SHARE this post aggressively into groups and tag your representatives.

And if you’re able, please support this all-volunteer effort with a donation:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=E5WT67QR5H6X8

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr Congressman Steve Cohen Steve Cohen David Schweikert Rep. David Schweikert Juan Ciscomani United States House of Representatives Randal Massaro Help Alberta Wildies Society Vern Buchanan

*There Is Only 1 True Re-Wilding Program for American Wild Horses - Learn Why*

SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE! Share into other FB horse groups and help educate!

Most wild horse organizations focus on rescue, sanctuaries, or managing horses in captivity. Very few are doing the difficult, long-term work of true re-wilding — returning wild horses to functioning, self-sustaining natural ecosystems where they can live as nature intended, without ongoing human intervention.
True re-wilding requires specific conditions that are rarely found together in one place:

*A viable herd size of at least 200 horses living in natural family bands, with no chemical fertility control (PZP or GonaCon) or sterilization. Smaller or manipulated herds cannot maintain natural social structures or genetic diversity over time.

*The presence of co-evolved predators — mountain lions, wolves, bears, and coyotes. These predators are essential for Natural Selection. They remove the weak and sick, which helps maintain the overall health and genetic vigor of the herd while naturally regulating population numbers.

*A complete, intact native ecosystem with the full diversity of co-evolved plants, grasses, herbs, and minerals. This provides wild horses with the nutritional variety and natural botanicals they instinctively use to maintain health and heal themselves — something that does not exist in agricultural pastures or artificially managed lands.

*Rugged, natural terrain with year-round water sources. The jagged rocks and rough ground act as nature’s farrier. As horses move across this terrain daily, the rocks naturally wear and shape their hooves, keeping them properly balanced and healthy without the need for human trimming or farrier work. This is a critical part of natural horse physiology that is lost when horses are kept on soft pastures or flat, artificial environments.

Agricultural pastures and sanctuary settings cannot replicate these conditions. Horses kept in those environments lose access to natural hoof maintenance, diverse forage, and the full ecological relationships that shaped them over thousands of years.

Wild Horse Fire Brigade stands alone in meeting all of these requirements for genuine re-wilding.

At Wild Horse Ranch, WHFB's team (Michelle and William) manage one of the last remaining free-roaming cultural-heritage wild horse herds in America that lives under fully natural conditions — complete with intact family bands, natural selection through predators, and a functioning wilderness ecosystem. After more than 12 years of immersive, on-the-ground work, WHFB has achieved what most large, well-funded organizations have failed to accomplish in decades.

This isn’t theory or good intentions. It’s proven on the ground.
If you want to understand what real re-wilding actually looks like — and why most current approaches fall short — please read this article and SHARE it widely:

Why Wild Horse Fire Brigade Stands Alone Among Wild Horse Nonprofits
https://www.pitchstonewaters.com/why-wild-horse-fire-brigade-stands-alone-among-wild-horse-nonprofits/

The horses deserve more than sanctuary management and chemical population control. They deserve to remain truly wild.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr Doug Burgum Jess Harris Siskiyou County Supervisor District 1 Shawn Ryan Angus Taylor MP

Why Wild Horse Fire Brigade Stands Alone Among Wild Horse Nonprofits Wild Horse Fire Brigade is advancing a different vision for conservation—one centered on preserving free-roaming, naturally breeding wild horse herds.

Wild Horse Expertise: Over 18-years of combined empirical experience from continuously living as a part of a naturally-living free-roaming herd of 200 cultural heritage horses in a balanced wilderness ecosystem!

William is the only wild horse ecologist who has studied wild horses and their behavior during an active 38,000-acre wind-driven wildfire for nine 16-hour days from the fire-line.

William is the only wild horse researcher who has studied the wilderness home-range landscape of a herd of 200 naturally-living wild horses before and immediately after a catastrophic wildfire and documented his findings in film and in print.

Doug Burgum Shawn Ryan Show Shawn Ryan Robert F. Kennedy, Jr Jess Harris Siskiyou County Supervisor District 1 Bill Meyer Mike Rowe mikeroweWORKS

Colorado's PAGOSA DAILY POST featured William Simpson II's recent article.

SHARING educates when you share into other wild horse pages and On your own page! As Wild Horse Advocates, educating others and helps to overcome the lies and misrepresentations, some of which are by the BIG wild horse nonprofits who ARE In-Bed with the BLM. American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly 'Campaign) is a partner and contractor with the BLM!! THINK ABOUT THAT!

SHARE the Truth, Share often and use all of the posts here, which are the fruits of William and Michelle's thousands of hours of HARD Work, a labor of love, performed without being PAID.

https://pagosadailypost.com/2026/06/15/opinion-america-is-repeating-brazils-amazon-disaster/
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Taxpayers for Common Sense CalMatters.org Doug Burgum Sam Bentley Shawn Ryan Shawn Ryan Show

OPINION: America is Repeating Brazil’s Amazon Disaster – Pagosa Daily Post News Events & Video for Pagosa Springs Colorado OPINION: America is Repeating Brazil’s Amazon Disaster Posted on June 15, 2026June 15, 2026 by William E Simpson II Photo: A family band of wild horses calmly graze wildfire fuels even as the deadly 2018 Klamathon Fire approached. (William E. Simpson II, July 9, 2018) For decades, Brazil has been ...

ATTENTION WILD HORSE ADVOCATES!

SHARING is what educates the others, especially into other groups beyond your own FB page. If we can't use William's research to accomplish that, then the horses pay the price. Share the many articles here and share them into all the other horse groups, that's effective and builds support for proper wild horse management. They can't learn via osmosis!

William does a LOT OF WORK to conduct and make research available. He's NOT PAID for all the *thousands of hours* of work he does. There are 7k+ followers here... being in the silent majority won't help save horses! We should see thousands of SHARES... because that's what it takes!

Here's another important interview William did at this link:
https://podscan.fm/podcasts/am-best-audio-podcast/episodes/wild-horse-fire-brigades-simpson-wildfire-smokes-hidden-toxins-drive-rising-health-property-risks-for-insurers
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr

Wild Horse Fire Brigade’s Simpson: Wildfire Smoke’s Hidden Toxins Drive Rising Health, Property Risks for Insurers - AM Best Audio Podcast - Podcast Episode - Podscan.fm Listen to Wild Horse Fire Brigade’s Simpson: Wildfire Smoke’s Hidden Toxins Drive Rising Health, Property Risks for Insurers from AM Best Audio Podcast (19 min) • Published Mar 25, 2026

ACTION *SHARE* ITEM !!!

TO: Congressional Wild Horse and B***o Caucus

Our founder and wild horse researcher, William Simpson II wrote this article back in 2019!! It wasn't until 2024, five-years after Simpson identified the issues in this article, that UCLA came out with their Study that agreed with Simpson... the wildfire smoke is killing tens of thousands of Americans prematurely every years... THIS IS A CRISES and the U.S. Gov. is acting incompetently and greedily by monetizing wildfires. With our management Plan for wild horses, thousands of lives can be saved each year and $-billions in losses prevented.

Core Benefits of the Wild Horse Fire Brigade Plan

*Dramatically Reduces Catastrophic Wildfires — Wild horses provide year-round, natural grazing of fine fuels (grass and brush), which drive ~65% of wildfire ignitions and rapid spread in the American West.

*Saves Tens of Thousands of American Lives Annually — Significantly lowers toxic wildfire smoke emissions (PM2.5 + harmful VOCs), which currently cause an estimated 24,100+ premature deaths per year nationwide (with some analyses projecting up to 36,000+).

*Massive Taxpayer Cost Savings — Eliminates or greatly reduces expensive long-term holding costs (currently over $50 million/year), helicopter roundups, aerial suppression (up to $1 million/hour), and repeated prescribed burns.

*Resolves Public Land-Use Conflicts — Humanely relocates wild horses from areas of economic conflict (livestock grazing, mining, oil & gas) into ecologically appropriate remote wilderness areas, creating a true win-win for stakeholders.

*Humane Alternative to Sterilization — Ends the cycle of chemical fertility control (PZP with Freund’s adjuvant), which causes painful inflammatory side effects, granulomas, abscesses, and genetic decline, while providing no relief to grazing conflicts.

*Superior Ecosystem Engineering — As non-ruminant hindgut fermenters, wild horses naturally “mow, fertilize, and reseed” the landscape by passing viable seeds and beneficial microbiome in their droppings — unlike cattle and sheep that digest most seeds.

*Post-Fire Landscape Recovery — Reduces post-wildfire erosion, protects critical salmon and trout spawning gravels in mountain streams, and accelerates natural reseeding of burned areas.

*Supports Wildlife Recovery — Improves habitat for deer, elk, rabbits, pollinators, and other native species by maintaining healthy grass and flowering plant cover.

*Carbon Sequestration & Watershed Protection — Enhances soil health, increases carbon storage in grasslands and forests, and protects watersheds through reduced erosion and improved vegetation cover.

*Prion Disease Mitigation — Wild horses are naturally resistant to prion diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD); their grazing helps reduce environmental prion loads on forage that affect deer, elk, and moose.

*Utilizes Existing Authority — Leverages the Humane Transfer of Excess Animals Act to designate wild horses as “work animals” for natural fuel management — a cost-negative, immediate solution.

*Proven in Real-World Conditions — Validated during the 2018 Klamathon Fire, where horse-grazed areas created natural fuel breaks that slowed fire spread and protected wilderness and communities.

Few people in Natural Resource management can demonstrate this kind of vision into the future. The posits William made in 2019 are all now facts and the USFS better pay attention to William's dire warnings!

No other person in America has the aggregated empirical experience with wild horse management (ecology & ethology), science, and business as William Simpson II

https://www.pr.com/press-release/792917

Doug Burgum Jess Harris Siskiyou County Supervisor District 1 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr Congressman Steve Cohen Juan Ciscomani David Schweikert Rep. David Schweikert

Rancher, Logger, Author and Naturalist William E. Simpson II Disagrees with DOI's Plan of Burning America; Says It Adds to Mismanagement of Wild Horses - PR.com Is burning and deforesting America’s public lands a genuine solution for wildfire? Or is it something along the lines we saw in Brazil, where forests were...