The USA and Australia share a common problem with wild horses causing environmental damage to conservation areas in large landscapes – both public lands reserved as national parks and rangelands. Mustangs and brumbies, the name for their counterparts in Australia, while often seen as an iconic symbol of the open landscape, are a daunting problem for land managers.

While the big excitement is the passage of the America’s Great Outdoors Act, there is a lot more happening on our public lands and most of it is not good news. Negative impact include the shrinking of our national monuments as well as proposals for energy extraction and the roll back of regulatory protections.These actions leave cultural and natural resources vulnerable to destruction. But what about the future, where should we be heading?

Interested in learning more about the intersection of climate change and cultural resource management? Read our interview with Dr. Marcy Rockman, an archaeologist with experience in national and international climate change policy. Dr. Rockman is currently working with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) as Scientific Coordinator for a project to improve incorporation of heritage in reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). From 2011 – 2018, she served as the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) Climate Change Adaptation Coordinator for Cultural Resources.