Hello and Happy Wednesday everyone!
In case you missed it, we announced on social media yesterday that our resolution was OFFICALLY introduced into the 2025 ND Legislative Session! SCR 4006 is a resolution that asks:
“That the Sixty-ninth Legislative Assembly urges Congress to enact legislation establishing federal protections for the wild horse herd of Theodore Roosevelt National Park to ensure the long-term health and preservation of the herd for generations to come.”
You can read the resolution here:
REMEMBER: A resolution is ONLY a request from the state to our North Dakota Federal Legislators. It does NOT automatically mean we get federal legislation! That is ANOTHER EVEN LONGER PROCESS that we are also simultaneously working on!
Many of you commented on social media how great the resolution and/or the bill are. And yes, they are!
This is something that Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates has been working on for almost a FULL YEAR! This DID NOT just happen to fall from the sky this week. We have been working really hard on this with our city, county and state legislators, federal legislators, the governor’s office and of course, Holly Bice at Bice Policy Group.
OUR LEGISLATORS WOULD NOT HAVE COME UP WITH THIS ON THEIR OWN!!! When the park abandoned their Environmental Assessment in April of 2024, we went to our state legislators and asked them to help us find a way to make sure that we NEVER had a repeat of the last 3 years. We have had tons of meetings with our legislators, Holly, Holly and our legislators – etc. And those meetings did not end when we finalized the drafts of the legislation that we all agreed on. The meetings DID NOT end when both pieces of legislation were introduced! The meetings are STILL continuing!
WHY?
WE WANT BOTH PIECES OF THIS LEGISLATION PASSED!!
I am going to once again strongly suggest that everyone watches School House Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” to understand how this process works: https://youtu.be/OgVKvqTItto?si=RRJH9j0M–AOM1ph
This legislative session, our legislators are looking at just over 1,000 pieces of legislation. They estimate that MAYBE 60% will pass!
WE CANNOT ALLOW SB 2331 AND SCR 4006 TO DIE IN COMMITTEE!!!
We have worked very hard for a year on this and NOW we will need EVERYONE to help get these passed!
YOUR TESTIMONY MATTERS!!!
YOUR TESTIMONY LETS THE COMMITTEE KNOW THAT THIS IS WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT!!!!
SB 2331 calls for the state of North Dakota to pull together a wild horse working group, similar to what has already been successfully done in Colorado. This group will bring together stakeholders from across the state to work WITH the park to help manage the wild horses. This is also similar to what Governor Doug Burgum said when he stepped up and spoke up for the TRNP wild horses. We have resources in North Dakota – and North Dakota has stood ready to help the park in WHATEVER way they can to allow a healthy and viable herd of horses to remain in TRNP.
In other pieces of legislation for wild horses in National Parks that have federal protection – there is a group written into the federal law that the parks HAVE TO work with. We believe that having a state-run organization is the best way to get proper management for these historic wild horses in a way that also considers the priorities of the state of North Dakota.
This bill on its own does not give this working group any power.
THAT is where the resolution comes in along with our continued communication with Senator Hoeven’s office.
SCR 4006 is a resolution asking our federal legislators for help to secure federal protection for this herd.
Again, our elected officials do not know what we want unless we tell them.
As we continue working with Holly at Bice Policy Group and Senator Hoeven’s office, this resolution will help him with his work in Congress IF/WHEN the opportunity comes up to pass federal legislation for this herd.
We learned during the 2023 ND Legislative Session how powerful SCR 4014 was.
We need your help to let our legislators know SCR 4006 is EVEN MORE important because it clearly states that the state of North Dakota wants federal protection for this herd. The job of EVERYONE’S federal legislators is to bring the priorities of their state to Washington DC. For us in North Dakota, that includes Senator Hoeven. This resolution makes North Dakota’s concerns clear to his peers in Congress.
Senator Boschee said that our bill – SB 2331 HAS to be submitted by February 10th. That means that our bill will go before the committee NEXT THURSDAY OR FRIDAY (2/6 or 2/7 – no hearings have been scheduled as of this time).
Once the hearing is scheduled, and we should have that info any day now, THEN we will need everyone to testify! We explained how to submit your testimony in a Horse Talk last week: https://youtu.be/mhO34CyU4hQ?si=ILMnTc1eKUdlP3zS
For this legislation, your testimony should be focused on the language in the legislation and how this will solve current issues with the park.
I am not going to create a form letter because our legislators told us those are not as impactful as your own personalized written testimony.
PLEASE LOOK AT THE LEGISLATION.
Think about the last 3 years specifically – what are the issues? The park has a long history of continually trying to get rid of the horses. They are using GonaCon in a way that is far too aggressive for typical birth control. There needs to be some level of oversight to make sure the horses remain for generations to come. Those are vague examples, PLEASE PERSONALIZE THEM IN YOUR OWN WORDS AND IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE.
Remember, our legislators have over 1,000 pieces of legislation and they HAVE TO be finished with this session by May 2nd! Keep your testimony short, sweet and to the point.
Your testimony for the resolution should be somewhat different. Why do you feel we need federal protection for this herd? Remember: These horses are NOT protected under the Wild and Free Roaming Wild Horse & Burro Act. You CAN talk about SB 2331 and name the working group as the entity that the park HAS to work with to manage the horses. We need federal protection to make that happen.
I am watching the legislative website daily for hearing dates and times. I will update everyone here as soon as there is any news.
There is no reason why you CANNOT work on your legislation NOW so it is ready when it is time to testify. We will also have more Calls to Action around this next week – so do what you can NOW!!! We have to be ready for when we are ALLOWED to submit testimony.
I will continue to meet with our legislators and will also be testifying in person.
IF you would like to testify in person, please email us at info@chwha.org. We are working with our legislators to streamline the in-person and virtual testimony. Again, we are hoping to make passing this legislation as easy as possible for our legislators. There will not be an indefinite amount of time for testimony for these pieces of legislation.
I also will NOT have time to look at everyone’s testimony and check off on it for you.
Remember:
THE COMMITTEE LOOKS AT EVERY PIECE OF TESTIMONY!!! The BIGGEST way we can try to get these passed is to have overwhelming testimony asking for a DO PASS!
YOU DO NOT NEED TO LIVE IN NORTH DAKOTA TO TESTIFY!!!
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Once these bills are passed, we start moving forward with Holly on the federal legislation piece!
This is VERY EXCITING – isn’t it?
PLEASE do your part FOR THE HORSES and make sure you take a moment to prepare for your testimony. We will let you know when it is time to testify and where/how to submit it.
Remember: YOUR TESTIMONY LETS THE COMMITTEE KNOW THAT THIS IS WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT!!!!
We also want to remind everyone that Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates has been trying to get federal protection for this herd long before we were even an organization. In fact, it is WHY we became a 501(c)3 organization. We KNOW we have to take advantage of the momentum we have gained over the last few years to FINALLY get this herd the federal protection they deserve! Our goal is to make sure that we NEVER have a repeat of the last 3 years – ESPECIALLY October 2024 EVER AGAIN!
We believe that SCR 4006 and SB 2331 will be instrumental in our goal for federal protection.
This work come with a hefty price tag – we expect it to cost CHWHA over $20,000 over the next few years. NO OTHER ORGANIZATION HAS HELPED US TO GET TO THIS POINT – ESPCIALLY THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH MUCH NEEDED FEDERAL PROTECTION FOR THIS HERD. Once again, we will say we welcome the help of ANY organization that wants to help us move this crucial legislation forward.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to CHWHA to help support our critical advocacy work. You can make your donation here: https://secure.everyaction.com/wnK6YjHlTkCC2Aq57_7srQ2
Thank you for your support and stay tuned for more to come soon!
Are you ready for the 2025 Virtual Summit?! IT STARTS TOMORROW!!!! (1/30/2025!) WE HAVE OVER 30 DIFFERENT AMAZING SPEAKERS GIVING PRESENTATIONS ALL FOR FREE!!! Click the graphic below for details!
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