WILD HORSES GET PROTECTION

The small band of wild horses in Southeast Missouri that has raised such big controversy in Washington finally will be allowed to continue to roam the Missouri National Scenic Riverways.

The herd's future was threatened back in 1990 when the National Park Service sought to relocate the horses because they aren't considered native to the area and might cause damage. The park service's plan to remove the animals touched off a wave of protests. Politicians got involved, and a new law was drafted to keep the horses where they are.

Finally last week the Wild Horses Protection Act, which was included in a major parks bill, passed Congress when the parks bill passed. That came about only after a long stalemate between the Clinton administration and Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, over logging in the Tongass National Forest. The administration had threatened to veto the bill unless the stalemate was resolved. When it was, the horses' future in the Ozarks was assured.

It is true that the herd is not native to the area; it instead has come about as a result of unfenced horses banding together and reproducing through the years. But how much damage can the park service really expect to occur as a result of 30 horses roaming 80,000 acres of wooded hills that make up the Missouri National Scenic Riverways.

The matter shows what it takes to dissuade a federal agency from a plan it is headstrong on carrying out despite heavy opposition. What it took was a good part of the decade and finally, an act of Congress.