Ongoing Communications with TRNP

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.”
– Peter Drucker

Hello and Happy Sunday!

As promised, we are back with a new blog to talk about our current communications with Theodore Roosevelt National Park management.

To recap – we met with THREE different superintendents at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in 2024: Superintendent Richman, Interim Superintendent Finley and most recently, Interim Superintendent Daniels. I believe this is unprecedented, as their quest for a new and permanent superintendent continues.

In each meeting, since all three of these superintendents have been new to the park, Chief of Resource Management, Blake McCann, is a part of each meeting. Blake is often the one answering our questions as he has been at TRNP since 2013 and is responsible for the management of the wild horses.

I also want to let you know that we invited Blake McCann to speak at the summit we are hosting at the end of the month. We thought it would be great if the park came and talked to the public and answered your questions. Initially, Interim Superintendent Daniels felt that this was a great idea and thanked us for inviting them to be a part of this summit. Then she came back and declined the offer stating:

“At this time we’re not sure what he’d present as we don’t have any new information to share. We are working on some new datasets and hope to have something we could share with you in the spring. “

I replied with a list of things that Blake could easily talk about to help the public understand the current management plans for the horses. I also reiterated that Blake speaks regularly at other organizations’ functions, so we are just asking for the same courtesy.

There has not been a response yet, but Blake, and the park, have a standing invitation for any day and any time of their choosing to either be a part of this summit or I will personally set up an individual Horse Talk when it is convenient for Blake.

Open communication and transparency, isn’t that the promise we are supposed to have from the park?

A lot was discussed in our first meeting with Superintendent Daniels. Many things she either is not aware of, because she has not been at TRNP that long, or she needs to take the issues, like the collars, to her team above her for answers. We sent a follow-up email to Superintendent Daniels, Blake McCann and cc’d Bert Frost as well.

Our email follows so you can see the concerns we are bringing to them. As we discussed in our blog yesterday, we hear you, and we do bring your concerns to these meetings. As an agency under the federal government, the public has a right to have our questions answered:

Superintendent Daniels and Blake:

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope the two of you had a memorable and safe holiday season!

I am hoping that you can answer some questions from the roundup in October. The questions mainly come from the reports that you released. As I mentioned in our meeting, the reports leave more questions that have gone unanswered.

How did you determine the mares that received a hand injection of GonaCon?
When we talked with Blake and Superintendent Finley, when it was decided that you would NOT be removing any horses from the park, you said that you would be hand injecting the non-responders with GonaCon. From your reports, it does not look like any of the non-responders where hand injected. Can you explain why this decision changed?
Please provide an updated list of GonaCon treatments to include ALL mares that were hand injected in 2009 and 2013, including any deceased mares. I am asking that the report also please give a month and year that GonaCon was administered and the dose that was given at each injection. This information is something that the park should have readily available because it is something that the park should already be utilizing in the day-to-day management of the horses.
Have you received an answer yet on if the park can give a list of the numbered horses along with their common name(s)? As we discussed, this is important so that the public can read these reports the way you intend us to so that we know we are all talking about the same horses.
During the examination of the horses while they were captured, how many horses were found to be pregnant in October and who are they?
Since we know the park had DNA on 98% of the herd in 2022 and you collected more in October, can you confirm the sires of the following horses:
1. 201347 aka Stallion Guardian (now deceased)
  201431 aka 2014 Stallion Remington/Evans
  201807 aka 2018 Mare Patience
  201813 aka 2018 Stallion Cagney
  201923 aka 2019 Mare Anisak
  201932 aka 2019 Stallion Arcola
  202022 aka 2020 Mare Katie
  202042 aka 2020 Mare Lil Mo
  202103 aka 2021 Stallion Beau
  202204 aka 2022 Filly Phoenix
  202205 aka 2022 Filly Serendipity
  220209 aka 2022 Colt Kodiak
  220210 aka 2022 Colt Noble
  202214 aka 2022 Filly Dreamer
  202304 aka 2023 Filly BlueBell
  202313 aka 2023 Filly Harmony
  202302 aka 2023 Filly Aspen (now deceased)
  202408 aka 2024 Filly Breeze
How did you determine the mares that were taken off GonaCon? Your website states that it was because of their genetics, but a simple laymen’s look at the list calls a lot into question: 3 of the mares are from the Pale Lady/Copper lines (201310, 201420 & 202006) – how does having 3 mares from the same lines help genetic diversity, especially when you ONLY took 5 mares off GonaCon? Mare Skipper (aka 201432) is the daughter of Mare Dolly (aka 200620), a known non-responder to GonaCon and a mare that you considered removing, along with her offspring. Why would this oversaturated line be ONE of FIVE that we want to make sure we preserve?
How were the collared mares chosen? Blake stated in our last meeting that these mares were recognized as lead mares of their bands. That is untrue for the majority of the mares.
How are the talks about taking the collars off coming? The public is growing increasingly more upset over this unnecessary experiment on the horses.
How is the park responding to the public request to stop the use of GonaCon? PZP native is known to be reversible and is widely used by the BLM. Why can’t this be used as a method of birth control, especially when you have significantly “halted the reproduction” of this herd already with your aggressive use of GonaCon the last few years. If nothing else, why can’t PZP native be used on the 2024 fillies who have yet to be treated with GonaCon according to park records?
200107 (aka Mare Pale Lady) and 202310 (aka Filly Willow) were the only 2 horses that were not microchipped either during this roundup or the one in 2013. Why does the park not feel the need to have these two specific horses microchipped?
Are there any additional Categorical Exclusions that have been signed with relation to the management of the wild horses since 2020?
What happened to 202302 Filly Aspen’s body after the park euthanized her? Superintendent Finley stated that the park would be shooting her. Normally when this has happened in the past, the body is left to “nature” after being removed from public view if need be. Why was her body removed from the park or the area where she died? Was a necropsy performed and if so, what were the results?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer these questions. Our organization and our followers appreciate the park’s newfound promise of transparency and open communication with the tax-paying public regarding the management of the wild horses we have entrusted to your care.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the requests above or if you would like to meet in person to discuss any of these items further.

I also hope that Blake has reconsidered being a part of our summit. As you can see, there really is a lot the public does not know about the park’s actions and management plans for the wild horses that call the park home. Again, if the dates of 1/31-2/3 do not work for you, Blake, I am more than happy to have a Horse Talk on the date and time of your choosing so we can help the public understand the parks past actions and plans moving forward.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
Chris Kman
Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates
www.chwha.org

Understandably, with the crazy holidays in the middle of the last 2 weeks, Superintendent Daniels has also been impacted by the weird weeks we all just faced. She is here for “not more than 120 days” and her family, including her 4 children, are back in Nebraska, where her regular job is at the NPS Regional Office. She will be back at TRNP on the 7^th. Also, with the administration changes, that also brings about changes within her office. We more than understand that our email and the wild horses in TRNP are NOT the only issues the park is facing. We do appreciate her taking the time to respond and acknowledge our email and more than anything, we look forward to the opportunity for more open communication and transparency, as promised by the park, as they respond to our email.

As always, we will share any responses we receive with you, when we receive them.

This coming week is full of meetings! I will do my best to update you when I can, but I do have quite a few really long days ahead of me this week!

Thank you for your continued support and have a great week!