We have some exciting news from our participation at the 10th Annual EQUUS Film & Arts Festival that was held in Sacramento, CA from Dec. 2-4.
The skies opened up and deluged many outdoor events. The snow that hit the mountains to the east of Sacramento (Tahoe, etc.) was heavy, so Festival attendance by some folks who planned on attending the live Festival by driving was limited due to hazardous travel conditions.
We still saw many people who drove in from southern California and from up north, as well as many attendees who made early reservations and flew in. The Murieta Hotel and Spa was fully booked for the weekend due to the two horse related events: a hunter/jumper show and the EQUUS Film Festival.
On Saturday Dec. 3rd at 10:00 AM, William Simpson gave a TED-like talk (live presentation) at the Guild Theater about the Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan (a.k.a. ‘Wild Horse Fire Brigade’). That talk had the largest audience attendance at the Festival and lasted 30 minutes. The talk was followed by a 30 min. panel discussion (Q&A) with the audience.
The following Board members were in attendance:
Deb Ferns – President
Kelsey Stangebye – Vice President
Michelle Gough – Treasurer
William Simpson – Founder/Exec. Director
The audience provided many good questions that addressed various aspects of how and why Wild Horse Fire Brigade benefits wild horses and ecosystems.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sent three representatives to the Wild Horse Fire Brigade talk. Their team leader was Amy Ruhs who was from the BLM’s Idaho state office.
One of the three ladies from the BLM, from the Sacramento BLM office, had a good question:
“How would you amend the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act to allow rewilding?”
The answer:
Section 1339 of the Act currently prohibits the BLM from relocating wild horses from any Herd Management Area (HMA) into another non-HMA area, such as designated critical wilderness (115 million acres available).
By amending just Section 1339 to state that:
The BLM is authorized to humanely relocate wild horses as family bands from areas where they are deemed to be in conflict with commercial enterprises and subject to roundups, and relocate them into designated critical wilderness areas that are both economically and ecologically appropriate.
A further discussion outlined how wild horses can currently be rewilded using existing law (Humane Transfer of Excess Animals Act: H.R. 1625).
Other questions from the audience included those involving evolution of wild horses and native species status, depredation by north American apex predators, and the current dire situation for wild horses created by the failed Adoption Incentive Programs (‘AIP’).
This talk and Q&A session was filmed, and we hope to have that presentation online for viewing sometime next week. It’s a massive video file (~40 Gigabytes).
The music video (“We Are the Wild Horses”) produced by a diverse collective of all volunteers around saving wild horses and presented by Wild Horse Fire Brigade WON the Winnie Award (top honor) in the category of “wild horse music videos.” “We Are the Wild Horses” premiered at the 10th Annual EQUUS Film Fest in Sacramento, CA and was very well received by the audience and is now online, full length, for everyone to enjoy and share:
NOTE: You don’t need any account or signup – just watch!
- On Twitter: https://twitter.com/OfficialWHFB/status/1600280004083990528
- On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWHFB/posts/pfbid0ErJTsCvRPCrvq3CXpiZC51KjvZfanMpojiQZ6qN3e5X6sSQsZsfsHts3oXtDQzCHl
- On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWINUpdiomc
The diverse team at Wild Horse Fire Horse Fire Brigade believes that music is an important way to educate others in a way that opens hearts and minds about the importance of American wild horses. We have more good stuff in the pipeline that we’ll be reporting later in the month.
The entire team at Wild Horse Fire Brigade wishes everyone a great holiday season!
Please visit www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org.