The National Park Service is being sued over the condition of feral horses at Cumberland Island National Seashore/NPS file

Cumberland Island National Seashore's feral horses not only are damaging the seashore's environment and two federally protected species but are not being humanely managed by the National Park Service and should be removed from the seashore, according to a lawsuit filed against the federal government.

The 65-page filing (attached below), which names Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Park Service officials among the defendants, alleges that the island's horses have suffered for at least a quarter-century because of Park Service neglect. During the same period, the defendants were aware of the negative impacts the horses were having on the environment.

"NPS and the State have inadequately managed and failed to remove the Island’s feral horses by knowingly ignoring the laws, policies, rules, and regulations put in place to protect the Cumberland Island National Seashore and its resources," the lawsuit, filed last week, claims. "Defendants’ failure to fulfill their collective obligations has inflicted serious harm to Cumberland’s horses, requiring their removal from the Island, and has permitted the horses, in the natural course of their existence, to inflict serious harm to the Island’s natural and wilderness resources."

The lawsuit was brought by the Georgia Equine Rescue League Ltd., the Georgia Horse Council Inc., Center for Biological Diversity Southeast Director Will Harlan, Cumberland Island resident Carol Ruckdeschel, and even the horses themselves, a listing the plaintiffs maintain is allowed by previous court rulings that have recognized wildlife as plaintiffs.

Seashore Superintendent Gary Ingram maintains the horses are not suffering. In an email to the Traveler earlier this month the superintendent wrote that, "[T]he National Park Service has monitored the horses on Cumberland Island National Seashore annually with population census techniques since 1981. Condition ratings for observed animals have been predominantly in the 'good' to 'moderate' categories. At no time during the last 41+ years have there been findings indicating that the overall health of the herd was in extremely poor condition."

Though the Park Service notes that the presence of horses on the island date to the 1700s, the lawsuit contends that the animals "face hardships as ecological strangers to the barrier island ecosystem."

"The fillies breed from their first heat and remain periodically pregnant their entire lives, forcing them to forage for their nursing baby, the foal they carry, and themselves," the lawsuit maintains. "This burden, together with the island’s lack of adequate food sources, is reflected in body scores."

The horses struggle to survive in the seashore's challenging setting, the lawsuit stated, claiming that "[T]he island’s harsh environmental factors reduce the life expectancy of the Island’s horses to approximately one-third of that of a domestic horse."

The filing also maintained that the Park Service was failing to preserve the seashore's environment by allowing the horses to remain on Cumberland Island. While Ingram did not address the Traveler's questions about the 150 or so horses' impact on the seashore's environment, a Park Service report from 2018 cited concerns about those impacts:

Studies of horse impacts at CUIS have found that grazing activity, including vegetation consumption and trampling, significantly reduces vegetative cover, growth, and reproduction in these habitats (Turner 1986, Dolan 2002). Grazing also appears to be altering plant species composition and is likely increasing the vulnerability of dunes and salt marshes to erosion and storm damage (Turner 1986, Dolan 2002). In addition to impacts on vegetation, feral horses compact wetland soils, altering soil properties (e.g., infiltration rates) and disturbing vital soil-dwelling organisms (Noon and Martin 2004). The wastes produced by horses contribute to nutrient enrichment or eutrophication of wetlands and waterbodies, and can contaminate waters with pathogens, including E. coli bacteria (Noon and Martin 2004). Together, these impacts make wetland habitats less favorable for native plants, fish, herpetofauna, and invertebrates. 

The report also noted that, "during a 2004 visit to CUIS, NPS Water Resource Division staff concluded that, 'maintenance of the feral horse herd causes unacceptable impacts to the park’s wetland resources."

The Park Service's neglect of these conditions is a violation of the National Park Service Organic Act, and constitutes an arbitrary and capricious action and an abuse of discretion, the filing argues. The horses also pose a threat to the seashore's wilderness, and "[P]ermitting feral horses to exist within the Cumberland Island Wilderness is directly contrary to NPS’s duty to assure the 'natural conditions' wilderness characteristic required by the Wilderness Act."

Furthermore, the agency's failure to remove the horses is a violation of the Endangered Species Act, as the horses intrude on critical habitat of the loggerhead sea turtle, which is considered an endangered species under the act, interfere with nesting females, and trample hatchlings and eggs. Critical habitat for the piping plover, another protected species, also is being impaired by the horses, the lawsuit contends.

The lawsuit asks that the Park Service immediately remove the horses from the national seashore "pending the issuance of a Categorical Exclusion, or if necessary, an Environmental Assessment and/or an Environmental Impact Statement, all in compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act," and prohibit the agency from allowing horses into official and potential wilderness on Cumberland Island.

Additional Traveler stories about the seashore's horses:

The Trouble With Horses On Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island Expansion: Putting the Cart Before the Horses

Cumberland Island's Horses Out Of The Past