Hello and Happy Thursday!
Yesterday was really quite the roller coaster ride! Once again, the day went nothing like I had planned!
The day started with Grand Forks, ND folk singer, Tom Brosseau, coming into our store to share a song he wrote about Stallion Alluvium. Tom is performing in Medora this summer and heard about Alluvium’s plight. We stopped by to talk to him before one of his performances last week and filled him in on the details. Yesterday he finished his song and was excited to come and share it with us.
He recorded the music yesterday and is working on the video to go along with the song. We will share that as soon as it is ready!
Tom has a PBS show called “The Great American Folk Show” and said he will be sharing his video about Alluvium there as well! You can learn more about Tom and his show here: https://news.prairiepublic.org/show/the-great-american-folk-show?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR09pcTqsPgZFutt2pQ8H5xSM_5JSW5JlQTPAyTzX9GkvnmYFnhfGa40wa0_aem_3GtZI5GhaWvk7Apm5YZONg
What a GREAT way to start the day! I actually would have been happy if that was all the news I had to share yesterday!
Next, I received a press release by Senator Hoeven’s office. He once again took advantage of an opportunity to speak up for the TRNP wild horses!
During the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing yesterday, Shannon Estenoz, who is waiting to be confirmed as the Deputy Secretary of the Interior, agreed to work with Senator Hoeven’s office, the NPS, and local stakeholders to manage the TRNP herd of wild horses in a way that allows genetically viable herd of wild horses for generations to come!
No one seen that coming!
Why did this happen?
Senator Hoeven’s office hears us! We always say that there are things happening in the background, even when it seems like things are quiet here.
Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates has been meeting with the Medora City Council and the Billings County Commission. We have been expressing concerns about the management of the horses and next month, we are on the agenda for both meetings as we have been asking that they pass a resolution asking for help with some management issues with Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
We are also working with Bice Policy Group to have legislation drafted for the State of North Dakota’s 2025 session.
All of this centers around getting proper management for the wild horses at Theodore Roosevelt National Park and ultimately, federal protection so we never have to worry about the threat of their removal again.
In April, when the park announced that they were abandoning their plans to eliminate the herd, we reached out to other nonprofits that document the horses and asked for help to get federal protection for these horses.
North Dakota Badlands Horse (NDBH) indicated that they were now interested in “working together to be able to present as unified a position as we can” – something we have asked them repeatedly over the last two years, but our request was continually denied. They also stated in their letter that they did not want to take any action right now but would rather “give this a little time for the park to begin its collaborative process of fleshing out the particulars of what will be done going forward.”
Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates sees the same old same old unfolding. THIS thought process along with their tagline “We don’t question the park, the park knows what they are doing.” Is what brought us to the last two years of fighting for the freedom of these wild horses. CHWHA is choosing to work as hard as we can to be PROACTIVE in our advocacy for these horses NOT REACTIVE after the park tells us how it will be. This is why we have been busier than ever since April 25th when the park abandoned their EA process!
The park is aggressively still darting mares with GonaCon and is holding Alluvium as a “nuisance” horse.
There are 125 mares between the ages of 2-25 in the park and we have had a total of 8 babies this year. Granted, we may see a few more before the year is up, but we are nowhere near the 15-20% foaling rate that is needed for genetic viability.
Almost 25% of this herd is also aged 15 and up. This means that we will be losing 25% of the herd over the next few years. We have already lost some greats: Red Face, Thunder Cloud, Twister, and Copper just to name a few.
Low foaling rates coupled with an aging population and now the ability to label our horses a “nuisance” and have them removed from the park, looks to us that the park is working on getting those numbers down to 35-60 as previously planned.
This is not the time for silence.
Consistent pressure constantly applied.
Our legal team reiterated that to us over the last couple of years. It is how we have been able to move the needle and remove the immediate threat of removal for these amazing wild horses and it is how we will move forward and get state and federal protection for these horses.
Senator Hoeven has heard our concerns and took advantage of an opportunity.
What if….
We had sat back, like NDBH proposed, and just waited to see what the park planned to do?
Actions by Senator Hoeven’s office yesterday, without a doubt, would never have happened. That would have been a missed opportunity for sure!
Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates will continue to move forward doing all we can to save this herd, just as we have over the last couple of years, with or without the support of the other nonprofits that document this herd.
Then while we were flying high between a great song and Senator Hoeven’s press release, the ride plummeted as the park released a press release stating that they will NOT be returning Stallion Alluvium back into the park. You can read the whole release here: https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/news/horse-approaching-campers.htm?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2OoBPozetiXSCVPBAYR9HmaujL9Xm8p62hWGtqAgpXV8NDZAj7rDn_Piw_aem_b82TSDDgmnhfD2s0FrdE7g
The release, as many of you have noted, is filled with conflicting information from visitors’ accounts of their encounters with Alluvium.
The park’s press release changes NOTHING in our continued advocacy for Alluvium. Today, we are sending our petition with over 1200 signatures, to our federal legislators, the US Office of the Pardon Attorney, Governor Burgum’s office and the ND Pardon Advisory Board.
THANK YOU to everyone who signed our petition!
We will leave you with a couple of Calls to Action that you can complete today:
- Send a THANK YOU to Senator Hoeven’s office for his continued support of the TRNP wild horses! This can best be done through his website: https://www.hoeven.senate.gov/contact/email-the-senator/form
- Send a Letter to the Editor to the Fargo Forum about the articles they have published in the past week about the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. You can submit your letter by sending it to letters@forumcomm.com.
The next blog I was going to write was going to be about our postcard campaign. The Universe had other plans lol I will talk about our postcard campaign in the next few days. It is STILL happening! We are in the process of packing up 900 packages of postcards and getting our Calls to Action together. Please check back for more information.
As always, thank you for your continued support!
Leave a Reply