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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Seedless Feed

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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: "IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Seedless Feed
  • Date: Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:52:38 -0400

 

At least in the East the only areas affected by seedless feed are federal lands and everybody is aware of the problems these restrictions cause. Besides the ineffectiveness of the regulations there is no scientific basis that horses spread invasive species of plants through manure.  The few studies conducted so far and published by the AAEP indicate that propagation from a seed that has gone through a horse’s digestive tract and placed in ideal conditions is under the rate from seeds tracked in by cars and hiking boots with ridges.

 

Besides the possibility of feed shock to the horses by switching hays or feeds to avoid the possibility of propagating some old weed back into an environment it was removed from as invasive, there is no guarantee that locally procured hay or feed will be seed free, even if so certified, because nobody inspects it.

Finally, if the hay is grown and cut locally from fields in the “quarantine” area does it have to be seed free? The grass hay grown in local state parks and used by local barns contains the species found in the park. And most of these park lands were recreated by buying up farmland that was in floodplain.  Even the local national park is artificial terrain having been restored by landscape architects and geologists since 1893 when the quarries were shut down and backfilling began. What is native about that area? It was farmland during the pre-colonial period and a bog iron complex during later years and through the federal period at least.  But we now have restored wetlands that might be endangered by a horse’s manure getting within 100 yards below the area.

 

There is one side effect for MSAR and local businesses—now we can’t keep feed rotating through the trailer and have to buy it on arrival in the search base.  As if MSAR logistics weren’t bad enough, now we need feed on arrival, instead of a day or three later.  And a vet for horses with bad stomachs should probably be there as well.

 

Irv Lichtenstein    




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