Wild horses on Assateague Island are threatening the environment by eating essential grasses, and officials with the National Park Service are mulling options to reduce the horse population.
There are currently 138 horses on the island — too many for the environment to sustain itself, said Jack Kumer, wildlife specialist at the Assateague Island National Seashore.
The story continues by describing that in spite of officials giving mares birth control medication, the population is still expanding. What it doesn't discuss is that the Island spans two states, whereby the horses are treated differently based on whether they are in Maryland or in Virginia.
On the Maryland side, the Park Service station offers visitors the option of 'adopting' a pony of your choice. The donation you give to adopt a pony goes to help manage and protect the horses, and the barrier island and coastal bay habitats on which they depend.
The Maryland herd is managed by the Assateague Island National Seashore, and considerable resources are required to preserve the habitat of beaches and coastal bays upon which the herd depends. In partnership with Assateague Coastal Trust, the area’s oldest non-profit environmental education organization, the Assateague Island National Seashore Foster Horse Program gives horse lovers and beach lovers a meaningful way to contribute to the herd’s upkeep and habitat projects which sustain their environment.
On the Virginia side, ponies are owned by the Chincoteague, Virginia Volunteer Fire Department. According to another news source, WTOP radio:
...the more domesticated ponies on the Virginia side are sold off every July in the well-known "Pony Penning" auction in Chincoteague.
This pony-penning event was made well known in the Children's book Misty of Chincoteague.
If you examine the map of the island, you'll notice that there isn't anything seperating the Maryland portion from the Virginia portion. However, the WTOP article indicates there is in fact a barbed-wire fence separating the two halves of the island.
The Virginia horses are separated from the Maryland herd by a barbed wire fence that cuts across the island. The Maryland horses are owned by the National Park Service and the Virginia horses are owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department, Zimmerman said.
The Virginia horses are rounded up several times a year, given veterinary care, fed branded bred with other horses and kept away from tourists and sensitive areas. The Maryland horses are allowed to roam freely, sometimes biting visitors who try to pet them, destroying camper's tents or stealing their food.
Uhh....it's called survival. The wild horses have learned that the campers often have food. But ironically it's when the horses eat the grass that's the real problem.
The horses eat two types of grasses that are essential to the landscape. They enjoy the beach grasses that maintain the structure of sand dunes, which prevent flooding. And their favorite food source is cord grass, or grass in the salt marshes, which is beneficial both for the Chesapeake Bay and for humans living near it, Kumer said.
Salt marsh grasses prevent excess nutrients from seeping into the water. They also provide a nursery for most of the fish and shellfish living in the bay, Kumer told The (Salisbury) Daily Times.
"The fish cannot exist well out here without healthy salt marshes to hide in while young," he said.
Salt marsh grasses should be about 4 feet high, but most of the grasses on Assateague Island are between 6 and 12 inches because the horses have overgrazed them, Kumer said.
"All the important things the salt marsh should do, it's not doing," he said.
Overgrazing has led to erosion, said Kumer, who added that the strain on the ecosystem is compounded by the grazing of 350 miniature Japanese elk, also known as sika deer. The deer have multiplied since the Boy Scouts introduced them to the island as part of an ill-conceived project in the 1920s, Kumer said.
"The ecosystem here is way out of whack, not in balance, primarily because of these two exotic grazers," Kumer said. "Instead of a healthy, tall salt marsh, we have a short, unkempt lawn and packed mud. And that hurts our nursery for fiddler crabs, marsh birds, rails, shellfish, fish, snails and many other creatures."
What's Kumer's solution? Sell some of the horses. However, the Park is seeking comments before it makes it's final decision on what to do.
Horses have lived on Virginia's Chincoteague Island since the mid-1600s, when local farmers brought the animals there in the summer to avoid paying taxes. The horses remained on Chincoteague and were not brought to neighboring Assateague until the early 1960s, when nine domestic mares and several stallions were privately purchased from Chincoteague and brought to Assateague just before it was designated a national park.
The national park started with 28 horses in 1968, and the number has been increasing by about 15 percent a year, Kumer said. The park service began administering birth control to the mares in the 1980s.
"We're trying to find a balance between keeping the island healthy and the horses healthy," he said.
The park service is asking for public input before making a decision about what to do. One option would be to physically remove horses from the island. Kumer said there may be sanctuaries that could take horses and care for them for the rest of their lives.
I visited both the Maryland and Virginia sides this fall, and enjoyed seeing all the wild ponies roaming around. I even saw a few of the cute Sika deer along side the road. Clearly, the biggest question you hear from anyone visiting the Park is "where can I see the ponies?" The horses are one of the biggest draws to the park, yet they are altering the ecosystem. In essence, they are an invasive species. What does one do?
The National Park Service put out a press release last month. On Wednesday, December 6th, the NPS will host an open house at the Visitor Center on the Maryland side to hear the views of the public on the matter. Park staff will be on hand to discuss what are the issues surrounding the horses and the habitat/ecology of the island. Written comments will be accepted from the public through December 15th.