Grab your coffee, tea, water – whatever comfort drink you choose.  Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

The year is 1978!

Jimmy Carter was our president. (BTW: he just turned 100 years old!!! Happy Birthday President Carter!!)

Cost of a new home was $62,500.00

Median Household Income was $15,064.00

Did you know that in 1978 the movie Grease was released?

Also happening in 1978 were the following songs topping the music charts:

How Deep Is Your Love – Bee Gees

Baby Come Back – Player

Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees

(Love Is) Thicker Than Water – Andy Gibb

Night Fever – Bee Gees

If I Can’t Have You – Yvonne Elliman

With A Little Luck – Wings

Too Much, Too Little, Too Late – Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams

You’re The One That I Want – John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John

Shadow Dancing – Andy Gibb

Other notable events in 1978:

Ben and Jerry opened their first ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vermont.

The first Test Tube Baby, Louis Brown, was born.

Home Depot was founded in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to Charmin makers Procter & Gamble, a 1978 survey found that Mr. Whipple was the third best-known American, behind former President Richard Nixon and evangelist Billy Graham. (And ahead of then-president Jimmy Carter.)

Cost of a Super Bowl ad in 1978: $162,000

And

On April 19, 1978, Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park signed off on their Environmental Assessment that was entitled:

“Proposed Feral Horse Reduction”

The park had not yet received National Park status.  That would come later in the year when on November 10, 1978 President Carter granted the park its “National Park” status. 

We have the full document for you to read in the Resource Library section of our website.

I was 10 years old in 1978.  For me, and I am sure many of you out there, it is crazy to think that 1978 was 46 years ago!

I can’t think of many things that were guiding my life in 1978 that I am still living my life by now.  And yet, Theodore Roosevelt National Park created a document almost 50 years ago and they STILL plan on using this antiquated document to manage the wild horses today. 

It doesn’t matter that BLM Range Specialist Milton Frei questioned and debunked most of what this EA is made up of back IN 1978.  It doesn’t matter that in 1990, Superintendent Noel Poe stated that there was no single document that the park was currently using to manage the wild horses.  It doesn’t matter that Poe also raised the number of horses to 140 based on conversations with Dr. Gus Cothran, a leading wild horse geneticist. 

Many of you have commented and no, all of the work we did for the last 2 years to save this herd also doesn’t seem to matter to the park either.  They are once again digging their heels in and reverting management of the horses back to what was decided in 1978.

To reiterate: These things were challenged by a BLM range specialist that was sent in to see if there was any other way to manage these horses.  Sadly, we are STILL challenging this report today.

So what’s in this report? How can we expect our beloved TRNP wild horses to be managed now that the park was forced to allow them to stay? There is a lot to unpack here, so we will do it over the course of a few posts.

Please note – right smack at the beginning of this document it states:

“Since the horses cannot be classified as a native wildlife species, they are managed as a livestock display”

Over the years, the horses have been “upgraded” to a historical demonstration herd – but the livestock connotation has always been there.  It was highly revived a few years ago when the park announced their management plans and tried to tell us all the reasons why livestock were not allowed in the boundaries of the park.

Some of my FAVORITE lines from the 1978 EA:

“Alternative #1 of the park’s Resource Management Plan for feral horses discusses the option of removing all horses from the park.  While this idea may be environmentally sound, plans to remove horses from the park in the mid-60’s were met with very strong disapproval.”

And then again:

“In 1964-65, plans were made to remove feral horses from the park.  It was thought that they were not appropriate to the park scene.  However, due to the strong local pressure and unfavorable publicity against the proposal, the decision was made to maintain a maximum of 40 horse herd.  Because of this precedent. herd removal at this time is not recommended.”

Isn’t it so crazy how we NEVER seem to pay attention to history?  Doesn’t this seem like a direct message from past TRNP management to future TRNP management?

And yet, here we are ~ AGAIN!

The proposed action came down to this:

“Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park proposes to capture and dispose of 30-40 live horses from the feral display herd in the South Unit of the park.  This reduction will leave 35-40 animals in the herd, a number representative of sexes, age classes, and color patterns.  Subsequent reduction will be undertaken at intervals of from every two to four years to maintain a display herd at from 35-60 head.”

And that is where the arbitrary number to cap the herd at came to be.  No science.  No rhyme or reason.  Simply what we have all come to realize: “The park will do whatever the park wants to do.”  Milton Frei even stated that the park had the resources to easily maintain much more horses than their proposed 35-60. 

It is worth noting that the park has never been able to maintain such a low number of horses.  As we currently see, that has not stopped them from trying. 

In our meeting with the park last Friday, we asked what their target number of horses is.  They still cannot tell us. 

Our guess?

A “display herd” of 35-60.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for more on our travel back in time to 1978!

Thank you for your support and have a great day!

Oh wait! 

Have you signed our petition?

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if yes, please ask at least 1 friend to sign this!  We need as many signatures as possible very quickly!

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