Decision on future of wild horses in a North Dakota national park expected next year

BISMARCK, N.D. — About 200 wild horses roam free in a western national park in North Dakota, but that number could decline as the National Park Service is expected to decide next year whether to eliminate that population.

Advocates fear a predetermined outcome will remove the beloved animals from Theodore Roosevelt National Park. An extended public comment period ends Friday on the recent environmental review of the park’s three proposals: reduce the horse population quickly, reduce it gradually or take no immediate action.

The horses have some powerful allies — including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and U.S. Sen. John Hoeven — while advocates are pulling out all the stops to ensure the animals stay. Park officials say they want to hear from the public.

The horses are popular with park visitors, who often see and photograph them along the park’s scenic road and trails through the rugged Badlands.

Evaluating whether the horses belong in the park is “long overdue, and it realigns us with our overarching policy to remove non-native species from parks when they pose a potential risk to resources,” he said. Jenny Powers, a wildlife veterinarian. who directs the National Park Service’s wildlife health program.

“This is not an easy decision for us, but it is one that our mission and mandates directly call for,” she told The Associated Press last month.

One of the horses’ biggest supporters fears that park officials have already decided to evict the horses. Chasing Horses Chris Kman, president of Wild Horse Advocates, lists several alternatives to horse ownership that were considered but rejected by park officials in the recent environmental review.

In the document, the Park Service said these alternatives would not be “aligned with NPS priorities to conserve the native prairie ecosystem” and would not address wildlife impacts, among other things.

Kman said she is “optimistic that we will ultimately win this battle. I have no confidence whatsoever that the park will do the right thing and keep the horses in the park.”

Even if the horses ultimately stay, park Superintendent Angie Richman said they should be reduced to 35-60 animals, according to a 1978 environmental assessment. The ongoing lawsuit is part of the park’s proposed management plan for “livestock,” a term the horses’ allies reject.

In the early years, wild horses were accidentally fenced into the park. They were eventually kept as a historical demonstration herd after years of efforts to eradicate them, said Castle McLaughlin, who researched the horses’ history as a graduate student for the Park Service in North Dakota in the 1980s.

Wild horse advocates would like to see the park conduct a larger environmental review and ultimately want to see it maintain a genetically viable herd of at least 150 horses.

A large majority of previous public comments were against removing the horses, making it “really difficult to understand why the government would choose to take them away from the American people,” said Grace Kuhn, communications director for the American Wild Horse Campaign.

The wild horses “have a right to be in the national park” and echo Roosevelt’s sentiment to preserve cultural resources for future generations, she said.

“Essentially, by implementing a plan to eradicate them quickly or slowly, the Park Service is thumbing its nose at the American public and their mission,” Kuhn said last month.

Burgum offered state cooperation in January to keep the horses in the park. His office and park officials have discussed options for the horses. State management or assistance in managing the park’s horses are options North Dakota would consider; move is not, governor’s office spokesman Mike Nowatzki said Monday.

Park officials “are certainly willing to work with the governor and the state to get to a good outcome,” Park Superintendent Richman said last month, adding that the park was working with the governor on “many different options.”

“It would be premature to have pre-decision talks at this time,” she said on Wednesday.

Senator Hoeven has worked to negotiate with park officials and included legislation in the U.S. Department of the Interior appropriations bill to preserve the horses. “If that doesn’t work,” he would pursue further legislation, he said last month.

“My goal is to keep horses in the park,” Hoeven said.

The park’s final decision also affects nine longhorn cattle in the park’s North Unit. All horses are located in the South Unit of the park.