North Carolina's Wild Horses Face Eviction to Make Room for Vacation Homes

Back when I had delusions about becoming a professional photographer, I made a list of “must visit” places to capture wildlife on film (in the days before digital photography). Among the locales was the Outer Banks of North Carolina to see wild horses. While most people think of the Wild West for wild horse stomping grounds, I opted for greener scenery along the ocean that also happened to be closer to home.

Like other American wild horses, the Outer Banks barrier islands herd has been there for almost 500 years. There's currently a population of 115 horses. This small population, already showing signs of inbreeding, is slated to get even smaller; the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service plans to reduce their numbers by almost half, claiming that the horses are limiting other imperiled species.

Unlike the wild horses on the Shackleford Banks to the south, the Outer Banks horses are not federally protected. According to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, by 1996, the horses were all relocated behind two sound-to-sea fences within a designated sanctuary area at Currituck National Wildlife Refuge. The purpose of this was to minimize damage by the horses to the fragile sand dune habitat, rather than to ensure protection of the horses.

Why aren’t there enough resources to go around? A large part of the equation is found in human expansion activities. Highway 12 has been expanding through the barrier islands for decades, bringing homes and other development with it. The year-round population of 150 cannot possibly occupy the 1300-plus homes already in the area.

Mike Hoff, manager of CNWR, concedes that proposed expansions are reaching a dangerous level: “The county says there are 3,195 developable lots up there. At that point, what habitat is left?” The appeal of making money off of vulnerable wildlife habitat must be too irresistible for Currituck County to pass up.

American wild horses are descendants of horses brought to North America in the 1500s by Spanish colonials. Since they weren’t originally native to the continent, an important question is: At what point does an introduced species become part of the native landscape? These horses have been here for just under five hundred years. Isn’t that long enough to be afforded some protection? The vast majority of Americans have not been in the United States for that long; it should be at least enough to give them precedence over vacation homes.

But the FWS believes that the horses are non-native feral pests. The agency plans to use contraception and adoption to maintain the population goal of sixty horses. Adoption is a tool used to reduce herd populations in wild horses of the American west, yet the number of horses and burros removed from the wild greatly surpasses adoption rates. Many of these captive horses and burros (around 34,000) remain at Bureau of Land Management adoption facilities for too long.

The Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act, introduced in June as congressional bill H.R. 5482, would protect the Outer Banks horses. The bill, currently in review, calls for double the FWS-intended population size. It also requests that mares from Shackleford Banks be introduced to bolster genetic diversity.

A University of North Carolina two-year study also began in June to determine the effects of horses on the ecosystem. The study will be used to guide future management plans.

I have yet to make the photography trip to the Outer Banks. Perhaps the time is now, before even more of the horses and their habitat are gone.

You can help by contacting your congressional representative to urge their support in passing H.R. 5482.

Photo by Kimberly Robyn