Twin Peaks Rush Creek Wild Fire Report: Where are All the Wild Horses and Burros? « Straight from the Horse's Heart

Twin Peaks Rush Creek Wild Fire Report: Where are All the Wild Horses and Burros? « Straight from the Horse's Heart

A wildfire started on Sunday, August 12^th, 2012 from an apparent lightning strike and by the time it was contained on August 30^th it had burned over 315,577 acres in California’s largest legally designated Wild Horse and Burro Herd Management Area, Twin Peaks.  Craig Downer, Wildlife Ecologist and “Grandma” Gregg, Environmental Researcher are experienced wild horse and burro observers and both familiar with the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area where the majority of the three days were spent searching for Wild Horses and Burros and documenting the extent of the fire damage.  Over 22 hours and 114 miles covered plus hikes into some remote off-road areas.  Travels included many stops to search with binoculars to look for any signs of wildlife – dead or alive.  Any live large and medium animals would be easier to locate in the burned areas due to lack of forage cover and any dead animals would be more difficult to find because of the grey-black color of the burned landscape. During our three long days of traveling through the Wild Horse and Burro Herd Management Area we only found 22 wild horses and 3 burros.