In a recent letter to the editor, a gentleman from Cortez complained that Mesa Verde National Park needs “a responsible management plan for its wild horses.” The letter writer had a variety of complaints, but an adage from the Old West states that sometimes when you shoot from the hip you get shot in the foot.
Let’s get the facts straight. The horses at Mesa Verde are not romantic wild mustangs. They are feral horses that have been abandoned. Like Russian thistles, they are invasive and do not belong in the park’s ecosystem.
The 21 tribes that consult with Mesa Verde want to see desert bighorn sheep brought back into the park, but feral horses dominate waterholes and sacred springs and have even driven bull elk away from water. Until the horses leave, the sheep cannot be reintroduced.
Feral horses are not wild horses. Across the American West, and specifically on the Navajo Reservation, they are destroying habitat that may never recover. Park Superintendent Cliff Spencer is doing an excellent job with a difficult eco-problem. He should have our complete support because he is following the NPS Organic Act of 1916 to leave the park’s resources “unimpaired for future generations.”
Invasive, feral horses, just like feral dogs, have no place in one of our nation’s premiere national parks.
Andrew Gulliford
Durango
