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Tuesday 8/11/26 Bill Meyer Show Guests and Information
Podcasts on www.BillMeyerShow.com
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6:35 Butch Merusi, former ODOT inspector and employee. We talk about why it takes so long to replace a bridge…more than a year for the Gold Hill bridge. Also, contracting issues, suggestions for improvement.
7:35 Herman Baertschiger, former state senator. Is the Jo County Commission being transparent about the push to renew the jail levy, or is a tax increase coming next year?
8:15 Capt. William E. Simpson, Wild Horse Fire Brigade www.WildHorseFireBrigade.org
Recent BLM studies WARN of increased wildfire fuels via the removal of Wild Horses!
Language appearing in multiple recent BLM EAs
Several Environmental Assessments contain nearly identical wording about short-term fuel increases after removing excess horses:
“Under Alternative 1 the numbers of wild horses would be reduced, and maintained at AML, which would result in a short-term increase in the volume of fine fuels throughout the HMAs. This would be due to a reduction in total amount of forage consumed year-round by the wild horses on the HMAs and surrounding areas. The increase of fuels available, especially during the late summer months, could result in a theoretical increase in wildfires.”
This language appears in:
- Pancake Complex-related documents
- Carter Reservoir / Buckhorn / Coppersmith Gather EA
- At least one other 2025 Final EA that analyzed fuels and fire
=================== NOTE: they say ‘Short Term’, because the BLM has preplanned the sale of grazing permits for cattle. BUT, as seen with the recent Ranger Road Fire, cattle cannot and do not address wildfire fuels adequately, and the landscape suffers serious environment impacts from ruminant, invasive species cattle grazing
The 2026 Ranger Road Fire has reignited debate over how America manages wildfire fuels.
20 Jul 2026 • 3 min read
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EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
To: The Honorable Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary HHS
From: William E. Simpson II
Date: July 17, 2026
Subject: Exigent Public Health Crisis from Wildfire Smoke — Immediate, Cost-Negative Remedy via Targeted Relocation of Excess Wild Horses under Existing Federal Authorities
- Executive Summary
Wildfires are generating chronic, widespread toxic smoke (primarily PM2.5 and associated toxins) that is killing tens of thousands of Americans annually through respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological pathways. Current 2026 season activity is already elevated, with millions of acres burned and high national preparedness levels. Suppression and downstream health/economic costs are escalating into the hundreds of billions annually.
The root accelerator of explosive growth and high-intensity fires is unmanaged fine fuels (grass and brush — the 1-hour fuels that allow rapid spread).
Wild Horse Fire Brigade’s Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan offers a proven, scalable, cost-negative solution: relocate excess federally managed wild horses (currently a net taxpayer liability in holding facilities) into targeted high-wildfire-probability remote wilderness areas under U.S. Forest Service and BLM jurisdiction. Free-roaming horses act as keystone herbivores that continuously reduce these fine fuels through natural grazing, lowering fire intensity, rate of spread, and resulting smoke production.
Existing authorities — the Humane Transfer of Excess Animals Act and USFS categorical exclusions for hazardous fuels risk reduction — enable rapid, stepwise implementation without new legislation. An Executive Order requested by you can direct interagency action immediately.
- The Exigent Deadly Problem: Current Wildfires and Toxic Smoke
Current Situation (mid-July 2026 data from NIFC and related sources):
- Year-to-date: Approximately 3.5–3.6 million acres burned across ~39,000+ incidents, running well above recent 10-year averages in the early season (reports indicate ~46% above average in key Western metrics as of early July).
- Active large fires include major incidents in Utah (Babylon Fire >100,000 acres), Colorado (Aspen Acres ~99,000 acres), Oregon (East Evans Creek ~11,500 acres and others), Arizona, Idaho, and additional Western states. National Preparedness Level remains elevated (Level 4 in recent assessments), with heavy resource commitment.
- Smoke plumes routinely impact air quality across multiple states and into population centers far from ignition points.
Human Health Impacts of Toxic Smoke: Peer-reviewed analyses establish wildfire smoke as a major mortality driver:
- Chronic exposure to wildfire-derived PM2.5 contributed to an average of ~24,100 U.S. deaths per year (2006–2020 data; Science Advances). Other estimates place the current annual burden above 40,000 premature deaths.
- Projections under high-warming scenarios: up to ~71,000 excess deaths per year by 2050 (Nature 2025 ensemble modeling), with cumulative excess deaths potentially reaching 1.9 million from 2026–2055. Effects can persist up to three years post-exposure.
- Acute examples: 2025 Los Angeles fires produced 30 direct fatalities plus hundreds of excess deaths attributable to smoke (JAMA and Environmental Science & Technology Letters analyses).
- Mechanisms: Fine particles and toxins penetrate deep into lungs and bloodstream, elevating risks of cardiovascular events, respiratory failure, neurological disease, and exacerbation of chronic conditions. Vulnerable populations (elderly, children, those with pre-existing illness, rural communities) bear disproportionate burden. Smoke also drives spikes in emergency visits and long-term healthcare utilization.
These are not theoretical risks — they are documented excess mortality occurring now and projected to worsen.
- Societal and Fiscal Burden
- Overall annual U.S. wildfire costs: $394–893 billion (Joint Economic Committee estimates), encompassing property loss, suppression, health impacts, watershed damage, and lost productivity.
- 2025 was the costliest year on record in insured losses (driven heavily by Los Angeles-area fires estimated at $40+ billion insured and far higher total economic impact).
- Suppression spending continues to rise; fuel-treatment investments have demonstrated returns of approximately $3.73 in avoided damages per $1 invested (Science 2026 analysis of Western U.S. data).
- Downstream effects: Overwhelmed medical systems, social services strain, lost workdays, and taxpayer-funded response/recovery. Smoke is a cross-jurisdictional public health emergency that does not respect state or agency boundaries.
- Root Cause Addressable Now: Unmanaged Fine Fuels
Explosive early growth of many fires is driven by continuous grass and brush fuels. These fine fuels enable rapid rates of spread and high intensity even under moderate conditions, generating the dense toxic smoke that travels long distances.
Mechanical thinning, prescribed fire, and chemical methods are valuable but constrained by cost, access, labor, weather windows, and environmental review timelines. A continuous, self-sustaining biological tool is needed for remote, high-risk landscapes.
- Cost-Negative Solution: Wild Horse Fire Brigade Natural Grazing Model
Wild Horse Fire Brigade (founded and led by Capt. William E. Simpson II, with 12+ years and 25,000+ hours of immersive ethological observation of free-roaming herds) demonstrates that properly managed wild horses function as keystone herbivores. Their year-round grazing preferentially reduces fine fuels, creates natural fuel breaks and landscape mosaics, and lowers fire intensity/spread — exactly as observed during the 2018 Klamathon Fire and corroborated by European studies (Spain and Portugal: documented fuel reduction, lower risk, and multi-year periods with zero or near-zero fires in horse/donkey-grazed zones).
Why cost-negative:
- Excess wild horses currently held by BLM represent an ongoing annual taxpayer cost (off-range holding).
- Transferring them to productive landscape work eliminates holding costs while generating avoided fire-suppression, health, and property damages far exceeding any relocation expense.
- No new large capital outlays; leverages animals already under federal jurisdiction.
- Dual public benefit: resolves excess-horse management pressure while attacking the fuel source of the smoke crisis.
- Existing Legal Authorities for Immediate Action
- Humane Transfer of Excess Animals Act (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, Sec. 116 / related guidance): Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior (via BLM) to transfer excess wild horses and burros immediately upon request to other federal, state, or local government agencies for use as work animals. Transferred animals lose status under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Explicit cost-savings recognition exists in BLM policy.
- USFS Categorical Exclusions under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and NEPA implementing regulations: Hazardous fuels reduction projects (including methods that reduce fire hazard) can proceed under categorical exclusion when meeting criteria for high-hazard areas, collaborative frameworks, and limits on scale/permanent infrastructure. Natural grazing fits as a reasonable, low-impact risk-reduction tool on remote National Forest System lands.
- Interagency MOU between BLM and USFS can operationalize transfers and placement into targeted high-probability wilderness/remote areas without conflict with primary land-management objectives.
No new statute is required for pilots or initial scaling.
- Recommended Immediate Steps
- Direct interagency working group (HHS health data + DOI/BLM + USDA/USFS) to identify priority high-wildfire-probability remote landscapes suitable for initial horse relocation under existing CEs.
- Request Presidential Executive Order directing BLM to prioritize transfers of excess animals to USFS (and cooperating agencies) specifically for fuels-management work animals under the Humane Transfer authority, with monitoring protocols.
- Launch limited pilot(s) in 2026–2027 fire seasons; measure fuel loading, fire behavior metrics, and smoke-related outcomes.
- Scale based on results, integrating with broader fuels strategy.
- Coordinate public communication emphasizing dual benefits: public health protection + humane, productive use of excess horses.
- Expected Outcomes
Measurable reduction in fine-fuel continuity and fire intensity in treated landscapes → fewer and less severe large fires → lower volume and toxicity of smoke → reduced excess mortality, healthcare burden, and suppression costs. The approach is stepwise, reversible, science-aligned, and fiscally responsible.
This is an actionable, evidence-based public-health intervention that addresses the core fuel driver of the smoke crisis using tools already in the federal inventory. I stand ready to provide supporting technical documentation, European case studies, field data, or further operational detail.
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Monday 8/10/26 Bill Meyer Show Guests and Information
Podcasts on www.BillMeyerShow.com
Facebook – www.Facebook.com/billmeyershow
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6:35 Chris Martz – Chris Martz, a meteorologist and policy analyst at Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
Many experts are claiming climate change is responsible for droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires for decades, a new bombshell report has disproven this narrative.
Read the report HERE.
- Data from NOAA reveals that the current drought in Georgia is not unprecedented, and major prolonged droughts have occurred several times in just the past few decades.
- The southwest has a long and documented history of megadroughts dating back thousands of years, several of which have exceeded the current drought.
- Wildfires are a natural and essential part of boreal forest ecosystems, and the long-term record indicates that neither extreme heat nor drought have increased in Canada since 1910.
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8:10 Dr. Dennis Powers, retired professor of business law at www.DennisPowersBooks.com
Prescott Park—and Roxy Ann Peak
By Dennis Powers
The idea for a Medford city park atop an isolated mountain peak some 2200 feet from the valley floor began in the early 1920s. Named after an early settler, Roxy Ann Bowman, the peak offers incredible views of the valley and surrounding mountains.
Despite attempts by different groups, it wasn’t until the Medford Lions club joined with the Mail Tribune and Medford city council that the U.S. Interior Department sold the peak and surrounding countryside in 1933 to Medford for $3,500. Consisting of 200 acres bought and donated by the Lions Club in 1930 with 1500 acres purchased by Medford via the Federal Lands to Parks Act in 1931, the park totals 1740 acres with the additional 40 acre parcel purchased from a private party.
The park was named after the then recent death of Medford Police Constable George Prescott. In early1933, ballot irregularities caused a crew of the Good Government Congress (“GGC”) to steal the ballots to be recounted the next day. Oregon State Police discovered charred ballots in the courthouse furnace with more later in the Rogue River. With police closing in on the GGC leaders behind the burglary and stolen ballots, Constable George Prescott headed to arrest one Llewellyn Banks at his home. As he headed inside, Banks fired a rifle at Prescott’s chest. He died on the spot.
Two years later (after an initial rejection), the Civilian Conservation Corps (“CCC”) under the National Park Service began the park’s construction: picnic tables, shelters, restroom, fencing, culverts, broadening Roxy Ann Road to 40-feet wide, along with crushed-granite roadways. By 1940, the park was substantially complete–with 18 miles of horse trails, camping facilities, and piped spring water.
However, Medford’s city council over time saw the park as a liability and not an asset. It tried to transfer the park to the Oregon Park system–but failed. In 1961, the council lost by one vote in giving it to Jackson County. But a selfless group of volunteers in the 1980s (the “Friends of the Park”) caused a re-thinking that led to new bike, hiking, and equestrian trails with handicap access.
A series of trails weave up and around the 3,576-foot-tall extinct volcano, as well as a road. To reach the park, head east on Hillcrest Road past Cherry Lane and watch for a small, green sign where Roxy Ann Road veers left off Hillcrest. The gravel road passes one gate that is locked around sunset and a second gate, a mile from Hillcrest, where vehicles can park. Check its website for hours opened, along with any roadway reconstruction that’s underway.
At this time, Prescott Park is the second largest municipal park in Oregon and to be enjoyed by all.
Sources: Source: Mail Tribune, “Prescott Park,” May 26, 2017; Larry Mullaly, “Triumph of Boosterism: Medford’s Mountain Top Park,” Southern Oregon Historical Society, Spring 2023, Pp. 10-12; Medford Park Dept.–Prescott Park