Do the wild horses have to go?

Visitors say, “No!” And now park officials are giving the visitors what they want.

Guests at North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park love to watch wild horses roam. But in 2022, officials at the National Park Service proposed removing the animals. Why? When the herd grows large, the animals may damage fences used to manage wildlife. They trample vegetation. Over time, soil wears away. The horses eat plants and drink water that native species rely on.

But for now, the horses will stay. Thousands of people left comments for park officials about the animals. Most of them wanted the horses to remain in the park.

U.S. Senator John Hoeven says officials from the National Park Service promised to maintain wild horses in the park. Roughly 200 live there currently. How many horses will stay? Maybe 35 to 60. But the final number remains to be seen.

Spanish settlers brought horses to North America in the 1500s. (The name for wild horses, “mustangs,” comes from a Spanish word.) From the 1600s to 1800s, they roamed the Great Plains by the thousands. Back in the 1880s, a young Theodore Roosevelt hunted and ranched on the park’s North Dakota land. (That was before he was president.) The horses living there now descend from those that belonged to Native American tribes and area ranches.

 “People love horses,” Senator Hoeven says. “They see it as part of our heritage in America.”

Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? — Job 39:19