NEW Comment Deadline – April 18th – What you need to know

NEW Comment Deadline – April 18^th – What you need to know

We are STILL in the midst of a massive and historic April blizzard that has crippled most of our state!  News reporters have stated that they never remember seeing this many road closures in a long time.  Because of this, yesterday we asked Theodore Roosevelt National Park for an extension on the comment period for the management planning process.  We know that there are many people and organizations that are sending in comments with supporting documentation through the US Postal Service and we know those will be delayed for sure.  Shortly after my email, Superintendent Richman responded stating that they will extend this public comment period to MONDAY APRIL 18^th.  This means that you have until midnight (MST) on April 18^th to either submit your comments to the planning portal or to have your comments POSTMARKED.  Comments can be submitted online here: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=119270

We also brought to Superintendent Richman’s attention that there is no way to upload documents on the planning portal.  She responded to us this morning:

Chris,

My apologies, you are right. I was told that you could upload one document, but that is incorrect. You could copy and paste the content of the document in your comment or mail in the attachments.

Also, if your documents are available online, you can put the link in your comment. Others have done that as well and it is a great way for us to include documents in our bibliography. 

Again, thank you for your interest in Theodore Roosevelt NP and I hope you are staying safe with this weather.

Angie Richman

Superintendent

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Medora, ND 58645

Office: 701-623-4730 ext: 1409

435-210-4071 (cell)

Here are some important points for you as we come to the close of this comment period:

• Comment period is extended to April 18^th – mailed documents MUST be POSTMARKED by April 18^th to be considered
• You can use links to submit supporting documentation to the park.  There is a TON of scientific resources in the library section of our website. You can view our entire Library here: https://chwha.org/library/
• American Wild Horse Campaign has issued an ACTION ALERT with a sample comment letter that you can personalize for this planning process.  You can find that here: https://americanwildhorsecampaign.org/media/act-now-national-park-service-targets-north-dakotas-wild-horse-herd
• The Cloud Foundation has issued this sample comment letter that you can personalize here: https://chwha.org/2022/04/12/thank-you/
• From the planning portal: Following the close of this pre-NEPA comment period, the National Park Service will update alternatives based on public input – THIS MEANS  TELL THEM WHAT YOU WANT SO THEY CAN UPDATE THEIR PROPOSED ALTERNATIVES ACCORDINGLY!!!!

Thank you to everyone who has emailed or PM’d us with questions or asking for clarification.  We are happy to help are excited to have so many people reaching out to help the amazing wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

We CANNOT and WILL NOT engage in questions that ask us why the other organizations are not sharing important information on their pages about this critical time for the TRNP horses.  We are not affiliated with either of them and neither of them are working with us and our legal team to make sure these horses get the best management plan possible.  We cannot say this enough, any questions you have about why they are or are not doing certain things need to be addressed to them personally.  Each group is welcome to advocate in whatever ways they choose.  CHWHA was born out of the need for an organization to speak up for EVERY horse in TRNP and not support whatever decisions the park made.  Work on our comment letter for this part of the process has been extremely time consuming.  We will be sharing that later today and believe that you will see why we simply have not had the time to monitor anyone else’s pages outside of our own.

Thank you for your support!

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Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates is committed to advocating for a wild horse management plan and protection for these unique wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home!  We are fighting for a management plan that is guided by science especially when it comes to decisions regarding the removal of horses and the administration of birth control.  Many other wild horse management plans have proven to be successful with their science-based plans.  We are asking for the same for this amazing group of wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home.