Hello and Happy Sunday to everyone!
Our social media ads are working!
Our Facebook engagement is up almost 500% and our Instagram engagement is up almost 200%!! Can you tell?!
Welcome to all our new followers!
Just a few reminders:
- The wild horses in Theodore Roosevelt National Park are managed by the National Park Service (NPS) NOT The Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BOTH agencies DO fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the current actions of the Park do resemble the BLM playbook.
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park is fenced. There are no concerns for cattle or other livestock taking the place of the horses if they are removed.
- The ONLY place where your comments matter is on the Park’s planning website: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/documentsOpenForReview.cfm?projectID=105110&parkID=167 Many of you are engaging on the Park’s Facebook page and also sending us emails as well as making comments on our posts. Those things may help raise awareness, but the ONLY place your comment matters is on the Park’s planning website: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/documentsOpenForReview.cfm?projectID=105110&parkID=167
- People have asked about supporting materials to reference in their comment letter. We have those on our website in the Save the TRNP Wild Horse’s section: https://chwha.org/save-the-trnp-wild-horses/ This section is filled with reference documents used throughout the wild horse advocacy world during NPS and BLM comment periods. PLEASE utilize these documents and share them! The documents the Park has on their planning website – MIGHT help – like the Brownlee report, but most of those documents were used to support the Park’s arguments on why the horses should be removed from the park so we do not recommend looking there for your supporting documentation.
- Our last comment letter is also on our website. Any documents cited in that letter have also been sent to the Park. If you reference those documents, you DO NOT have to send the Park a hard copy of the reference material. IF you have a NEW document, you do have to send that to them. Documents the Park listed on their planning site DO NOT have to be mailed to them. We know they have them! If you are unsure, feel free to email us at info@chwha.org.
- To our long-time followers: no matter how long you have been in this fight with us, at some point, the management actions of Theodore Roosevelt National Park were (and may continue to be) shocking to you. Remember that as we welcome new followers to our page. They may just be learning about what is happening to our horses and we are happy to have them joining us in this fight. We have REPEATEDLY stated that there are still too many people who do not know what is happening in OUR national park. Please feel free to help us answer their questions with understanding and compassion.
- There will always be people who disagree with us. That is fine. Yesterday at the Trunk or Treat in Medora, a woman wanted to argue with me about the benefits of continued removals of the horses from the Park – so she can own one herself. And surgical sterilization of “lower grade” mares as an added management practice. While I DID ask her if it would be ok if we permanently sterilized “lower grade” humans as well – my husband quickly reminded me that we were REALLY there for the kids. Remember why you are here. If someone gets to be too much, please send us a PM or an email at info@chwha.org and we will give them a warning before we ban them from the page. These people are entitled to their opinions – we just will NOT tolerate someone who is just here to argue and belittle our followers.
Many of you are sharing comments that say things like “I will not return to Theodore Roosevelt National park if the horses are removed.”
That ALONE is NOT a SUBSTANTIVE comment. The Park does NOT care if I never go to the Park again. The Park does NOT care if 20,000 people say they won’t go to the Park again.
Consider saying SOMETHING like this instead – again in your own words please:
“Me and my family will NOT return to Theodore Roosevelt National Park if the horses are removed. They are the only reason we go to the Park. We can see bison in other places, like Yellowstone and Custer State Park. We are not the only ones who feel this way. A 2020 study released by Brownlee CLEARLY shows that 89% of visitors to your park agree with us as the report shows that most visitors want the presence of wild horses to remain in the South Unit. Moreover, out of 22 different topics brought to the attention of visitors, the wild horses received the most positive responses from visitors on what was important to them to experience while they visited the South Unit.”
THAT gave your simple comment some SUBSTANCE – some backbone – SOME FACTS!
You not only expressed that you disagree with their decision to eliminate the horses, you let them know that 89% of the people in a study they vetted, ALSO want the horses to stay! You also DO NOT have to send them the Brownlee study – they have it and we know that because it is on their website. You do NOT have to sound like a scientist or lawyer to make an IMPACTFUL and MEANINGFUL comment – you simply have to give them FACTS that they can use as they move forward in this process.
Now, IF 20 of you copy and paste that paragraph EXACTLY as it is above – THAT will count as ONE comment. Please use those facts stated there, just put it into your own words to be respectful of other people who are commenting and to help make EVERYONE’s comment count!
We have discussed the Purpose and Need statement as well as the “livestock” classification in other blog posts. Please feel free to look through past blogs as well as other people’s comment letters from the last comment period, for ideas on how to make your comment count.
We have also talked to some pretty awesome people in our Horse Talks. Those are available on our YouTube channel and can be helpful to you when you are writing your comment letter. We are working on a couple more to help and our talk from Friday will be posted later today or tomorrow.
Please continue to send us your questions either through social media PM’s or by email at info@chwha.org.
We will be back tomorrow to talk about the historical and cultural significance of these horses and where you can get the reference materials you need for that argument.
REMEMBER: your comment can be as short or as long as you like! AND YES! You can comment more than once. We do suggest that you start a word document of some sort and have a place where you can add to your comments as other topics come up that you want to personally tell the Park. Then, once you have everything together, send it in as one document.
Just a reminder, if you are interested in any of our educational or promotional materials, please email us at info@chwha.org. We will be sending out materials tomorrow, to those of you who let us know last week.
Welcome again to all of our new followers and THANK YOU to everyone old and new for being in this fight with us. Just under 200 horses are depending on us to be their voice! We appreciate each one of you!
