THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408310484
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA AND LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CURRITUCK, N.C., LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Corolla Wild Horse Fund members plan to pinpoint the number of horses in the northern Outer Banks' free-roaming herds to ensure they can survive after a mile-long fence is erected.
The inventory is the first step toward developing short- and long-term plans that were discussed Tuesday afternoon at a wild-horse management meeting at the Currituck Courthouse complex.
``We'd gotten a little sidetracked,'' County Manager Bill Richardson said after the two-hour session. ``This meeting was to try to get back on track.''
The survey, to be done after the tourist season ends, will include a population count and analysis of the animals' diet.
The survey team also plans to get blood samples from each of the horses. This will help determine the minimum number of wild horses needed to ensure genetic diversity of the herd once the animals are corralled.
Currituck wild-horse estimates range from a low of 35 to as many as 150.
``If there are that many, you've got an unbelievable job on your hands,'' John B. Taggart told the seven local, state and federal officials at the Tuesday meeting.
The state coastal reserve coordinator for the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management cited the barrier island's size and landscape among the difficulties.
``Just counting the number of horses and pulling blood from them is going to be a gargantuan job,'' said Taggart, who works with the North Carolina Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources in Wilmington.
Horses remaining outside the fenced area would be auctioned, adopted or relocated, members said Tuesday. ``We're still looking at all the options,'' Taggart said.
The advocates for Corolla's wild-horse herd have spent five years trying to develop a plan to move the animals off of Currituck County's quickly developing Outer Banks and into a safer area.
In the past five years at least 15 horses have died after being hit by vehicles on N.C. Route 12.
Some historians believe ancestors of the feral horses have roamed the barrier island beaches since swimming ashore from Spanish shipwrecks more than three centuries ago.
Two months ago, after numerous meetings of federal, state, county and local officials, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit which will allow a group of Currituck County residents to build a 4-foot-high fence north of the end of N.C. Route 12.
Corolla Wild Horse Fund members want to move some of the roaming animals out of the populated Corolla beach subdivisions and onto 1,800 acres of government-controlled land.
The wood-and-wire barrier will stretch one mile from sound to sea and will - hopefully - keep the horses from seeking greener pastures further south.
The fence will include a cattle guard to allow four-wheel-drive vehicles to continue to drive to the state's northern beaches, a gate on the beach for emergency vehicles, and passageways for people walking along the beach.
A large portion of the land on which the horses will be corralled is owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is included in the Mackay Island and Currituck national wildlife refuges.
``On one hand, the permit will solve a problem for the horses,'' said Ken Merritt, who manages both national refuges. ``But we've always had a problem on our refuges with those horses, and now we'll probably have a worse one. Horses just aren't compatible with the refuge uses.
``We'll be looking for a way to remove them from our refuges.''
In March, Merritt and other federal wildlife officials wrote letters to the Corps protesting the fence. If wild horses are corralled on refuge land, officials said the animals will harm endangered piping plovers, crush endangered plants like the seabeach amaranth, and adversely affect other barrier island species.
The study and a permanent plan to manage the horses are expected to take at least three years to complete.
Tuesday's group will meet again before Thanksgiving for further discussions. by CNB