Can you help us protect the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park?
On April 25, 2024, Theodore Roosevelt National Park announced that they were abandoning their plans to eliminate the entire herd of wild horses from the boundaries of the park. This came about after 2 long years of tireless advocating by Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates (CHWHA) to save this historic wild horse herd.
It is easy to think that the battle was won, the horses have been saved, and we can all go back to our regular lives. The truth this that since April 25, 2024, CHWHA has been busier than ever as we work to make sure that the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park NEVER face the threat of removal again!
Just as we did for the last two years, we are continuing to work with our local, state and federal legislators. CHWHA’s ultimate goal is to gain federal legislation that will protect this herd – INDEFINITELY! Wild horses in our national parks are not protected under the 1971 Wild Horse & Burro Act. Their management is left to the discretion of the current park administration.
To help us meet this goal, we met with local legislators over the summer months. Those meetings led to BOTH the Billings County Commission and the Medora City Council passing their own individual resolutions asking that a genetically viable and healthy herd of wild horses always remain in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
As stated in the Medora City Council Resolution No 01-2024:
“The horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park bring tourism to the state and the City of Historic Medora, and the elimination of a genetically viable herd poses economic concerns for the local businesses and negatively impacts preservation and appreciation of our state’s and community history.”
The 2025 North Dakota Legislative Session is also fast approaching. We are working with our state legislators on legislation that will also help ensure that a genetically viable herd of wild horses always remains in the park. We believe that what we are working on with our state legislators will assist in paving the way for federal legislation.
To guide us as we navigate through this extensive legislative process, we have hired Bice Policy Group to help us draft legislation and lobby Congress to rally support for federal legislation.
We expect this process to cost CHWHA $20,000.
To help meet our expenses as we continue to fight for the freedom of the wild horses that call the park home, we have two of our largest fundraising campaigns coming up: Giving Tuesday on December 3, 2024, and Giving Hearts Day on February 13, 2025.
How you can help:
- We have set a goal to raise $5,000 in matching funds for both campaigns! This will give us the opportunity to raise $10,000 for each campaign when your donation is maximized and matched by our supporters. You can make your tax-deductible donation to support our matching funds for Giving Tuesday here: https://secure.everyaction.com/k7hv_PV1xkClgzs7JF0yIA2 and for Giving Hearts Day here: https://secure.everyaction.com/KrELigjJckyX7vqDTjTdzg2 Donations can also be mailed to us at:
Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates
P.O. Box 3562
Dickinson, ND 58602
- We will be holding merchandise auctions to raise money for our matching funds! You can help by donating your new, or gently used items! We often get asked and YES! You can also donate gift certificates from your business! Our first auction will be October 25-November 3, 2024, and the second will be December 1-8, 2024. You can email us at info@chwha.org and let us know you have an item to donate and arrange for us to pick it up from you. You can also upload the item information to our auction website. If you choose the latter, we will send you information on who to ship the items to once the auction is over. You can upload items for our October auction here: https://chwha.betterworld.org/donate-an-item?_gl=1*wuqf94*_gcl_au*ODIwOTE4MzI0LjE3MjU2NDc1NDguMTQxNTA5NTI2LjE3MjU2NDg5NzQuMTcyNTY1MDcwMg.. and items for our December Auction can be uploaded here: http://chwha.betterworld.org/donate-an-item?_gl=1%2A1oxgtt3%2A_gcl_au%2AODIwOTE4MzI0LjE3MjU2NDc1NDguMTQxNTA5NTI2LjE3MjU2NDg5NzQuMTcyNTY0OTU0NQ.. Donations can also be dropped off at the Chasing Horses retail store located at 312 Pacific Ave in Medora.
You can learn more about Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates and our work to save this historic wild horse herd on our website at www.chwha.org. You can also view our 2023 Annual Report that highlights our effective advocacy work on the homepage of our website.