Theodore Roosevelt National Park: Wild horses will stay

Wild horse lovers are rejoicing. A potential plan to remove wild horses from Theodore Roosevelt National Park has, like the expression goes, “made like a buffalo chip and hit the dusty trail.” Wild horses will stay at the national park.

Park service “terminates” plan. Wild horses will stay

The decision was announced April 25, and heralded loudly by U.S. Senator John Hoeven (R). Hoeven said he “secured a commitment” from the Service to allow the horses to stay. At this point it isn’t clear just how many wild horses occupy the North Dakota park.

A posting on the park’s website reads, “The National Park Service has terminated the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Livestock Plan Environmental Assessment after careful consideration of the information gathered during the planning process, including public feedback.”

The Service has scuttled the proposed removal of the horses under that environmental review process. That plan first surfaced in 2022. With it out of the way, the park will continue to operate under an existing 1978 environmental assessment that calls for a reduction in their numbers. Prior to the back-pedal on the plan to eliminate the horses, Park Superintendent Angie Richman said the horses will still have to be reduced to 35 to 60 animals, this under the 1978 environmental assessment. The assessment notes the herd size threatens park infrastructure and natural resources.

Many voices heard over herd

A Park Service report indicates there was plenty of public comment on the matter. “The NPS received 25,561 total correspondences;” notes a park document. “Of these, 9,118 correspondences were unique, and 16,443 were identified as part of form-letter campaigns.”

The wild horses will stay, even though they’re non-native. They descend from those of Native American tribes and area ranches, and from domestic stallions introduced to the park in the late 20th century. That, according to Castle McLaughlin, who researched the horses as a graduate student while working for the Park Service in North Dakota in the 1980s. When visiting Theodore Roosevelt, you can legitimately say, “Wild horses could drag me away!” [With apologies to The Rolling Stones.]

##RVT1155b