Room to roam

Re: “Ranchers want wild horses reined in,” May 6.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that 853 horses cannot be accommodated on 8,500 square kilometres of rangeland. I suggest Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development folks view a recent TEDtalk entitled “Allan Savory: How to fight desertification and reverse climate change.”

Savory explains that common wisdom 30 years ago, when he was a young biologist in Africa, was to blame herd animals for destroying range land. He was responsible for killing thousands of elephants.

Savory shows how that strategy was the worst thing that could have been done to the land. Without those animals, grasses remained upright and did not protect the soil in times of drought, seeds and fertilizer were not deposited, and the land died.

There is plenty of room for horses on our provincial rangeland, as well as bears, wolves, cougars, coyotes and all the rest. Cows, too.

Lois Lockwood, Calgary