“My key to dealing with stress is simple: just stay cool and stay focused.”
~ Ashton Eaton
Hello and Happy Thursday!
Hopefully everyone is recovering from 2 wacky holiday weeks!
As you know we are working on state legislation for the 2025 North Dakota Legislative Session that starts on TUESDAY! In 2023 when we worked on the resolution that ultimately passed UNANIMOUSLY – SCR-4014, I know a lot of people said we made it look easy. Believe me – IT WAS NOT!
This time, our legislation is different. I am going to do my best to walk you through the process with us so you can see what this entails and how hard we are working to get this legislation passed.
We have 2 pieces we are having introduced – and they WILL BE INTRODUCED, despite what you may be seeing on other pages. We are following a process, and the legislative process is SSSLLLLOOOOOWWWWW!
The first is a resolution simply asking for federal protection for the wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home. This is something we discussed with Senator Hoeven’s office when we met with them in Washington, DC in November. His office said it would be helpful.
What is the difference between SCR-4014 and what we are asking for this time?
SCR-4014 was a request to Congress that the wild horses in TRNP be allowed to stay in light of the park’s announcement of their plans to eliminate the entire herd.
The resolution we are introducing this time asks clearly and simply for a federal law to protect the horses.
A resolution is NOT a law. They are not a policy. This is simply a request from the state of North Dakota that the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park be federally protected.
Please note: These horses are NOT protected under the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The National Park Service went to court when the act was passed and requested an exclusion from this act. That exclusion was granted so wild horses on National Park Service lands are managed at the discretion of the individual parks.
There are TWO national parks that have wild horses that DO have federal protection. So a precedent has already been set for federal legislation. We believe that our wild horses in TRNP also deserve federal protection.
This legislation will be written into North Dakota LAW when it is passed. That is very different than a resolution. Governor Armstrong also has to sign the working group legislation. A resolution does NOT require the governor’s signature.
I am going to be honest – I am exhausted already and at times, stressed more than I care to show.
In 2023, we only had a few weeks to take care of a process that should have started months prior. It was extremely stressful but within a month the stress subsided as we FINALLY got the legislation introduced under the wire – really, just in the nick of time!
I didn’t want to repeat that stress again this session.
Let’s all take a moment to laugh!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
I started talking to legislators about this legislation in March of 2024. I wanted to be wayyy ahead of the legislative session and just ready to submit the legislation to legal counsel and wait for the committee dates to testify.
Holly and I had many talks with state legislators and then Holly worked her magic and wrote out the legislation. That was followed by some political drama (unrelated to us) that had to get resolved and then before we knew it, the holiday season was here!
UGH!
I reached out to more legislators during the drama phase and got more on board with this legislation. At the beginning of December, Senator Josh Boschee submitted the legislation to legal counsel because they have over 1400 pieces of legislation to look at this session.
Almost a month later, on Christmas Eve, the legislation FINALLY came out of legal counsel – so we have a working draft that we can work with now. This draft will change as more legislators sign on and we navigate through this.
Now, as we are here there are a lot of hindsight moments coming to light – things we should have done and now have to do in a shorter amount of time.
“No worries!”
That is what Senator Boschee told me today – so that is what I am going with!
The 2025 North Dakota Legislative Session officially starts next week. The legislators will be together and will be able to discuss this legislation and decide who will be the primary sponsor and who the co-sponsors will be.
In the meantime…
We listed A LOT of organizations/offices as part of this working group. We are meeting with some – like the Medora Chamber of Commerce and The Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, to share the current draft with them, see if they want to remain on the final draft as part of this working group and also see if they have any suggestions while we can still make changes to the legislation.
One thing everyone wants to know ….
WHAT DOES OUR NEWLY ELECTED GOVERNOR THINK?
GREAT QUESTION!!
TODAY we had our first meeting with Governor Armstrong’s policy advisor. The meeting went well AND his policy advisor actually just moved to North Dakota from Washington DC where he served on Senator Hoeven’s team!
Soooooo
He is pretty well aware of the wild horse issue that has been going on since March of 2022!
Governor Armstrong’s team just took office in the middle of December, so they are working on getting to know each other or like the person we talked to today said – they know where the light switches are and he just got his printer installed today. Progress!
He will meet with his team and get back to us next week.
We DID remind him that while Armstrong was campaigning, he told us that we could count on the same support from him as governor as we did from Governor Burgum. We are hoping he will keep that promise.
We also talked to Armstrong’s office about the aggressive use of GonaCon and the collars. We left them with plenty of reading material, reports and scientific data.
Later this afternoon, we met the North Dakota State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), Bill Peterson, in person. We shared the working group legislation with him.
We also thanked him for all his hard work during the Environmental Assessment process. His office was instrumental in the work that was done that made the park abandon their plans to eliminate the horses. The Section 106 Process would have caused major problems for the park and the process COULD NOT move forward, at least as easily as they would have liked, without the SHPO’s blessing. The park was NOT getting that blessing from Bill Peterson.
What’s next?
Tomorrow, we have a phone meeting with Senator Hoeven’s office and one of our North Dakota reporters.
Next week is a busy week with more meetings with people we have listed as part of the working group and our state legislators.
All legislation has to be finalized and submitted before (I think) January 20th.
Senator Boschee assured me today that ours would be introduced within the next 2 weeks, before the January 20th deadline.
Once it is introduced, it will be given a bill number and then we will call upon all of you, and others we have been talking to, to testify. This can be done online or in person. We will tell you when you can do this and will host a Horse Talk explaining the process for anyone who has questions.
We hope this helps you understand this process, what we are working so hard on and why taking action now is so critical. There are real deadlines that have to be met and no wiggle room.
There is also a lot of chatter out there about our “agenda”.
Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates has been very clear about our “agenda” from DAY 1: to get federal protection for the wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home. We cannot speak to any other organizations agenda and remember NO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS ARE WORKING WITH US ON THIS CRITICAL LEGISLATIVE PROCESS! And, yes, WE HAVE ASKED!
We are getting closer to realizing our “agenda” and know that the hard work that lies ahead of us will be worth every single step for these horses.
Our goal is to NEVER have a repeat of the last (almost) 3 years! The ONLY way to ensure that the wild horses unique to the North Dakota landscape ALWAYS remain wild and free in Theodore Roosevelt National Park is with federal legislation – PERIOD!
Are you guys all ready?
Let’s Gooooooo!!!!
Thank you for your support and please feel free to comment, PM us or email us with any questions you have. We will do our best to answer as we can or through our blogs. You can email us at info@chwha.org
Have a great night!
Leave a Reply