CONGRESS WEIGHS SPECIAL PROTECTION FOR WILD HORSES

Wild horses in Southeast Missouri are getting their day in Congress. Rep. Bill Emerson is a longtime advocate of allowing the beasts to roam free in the 71,000-acre Ozark National Scenic Riverways that encompasses the hills and valleys through which beautiful, spring-fed rivers flow. If legislation he has introduced is adopted, possibly later this summer, the horses would be protected as long as the herd didn't exceed 50 animals.

While wild horses might not be a major issue for everyone, there are a number of avid supporters and opponents who take any discussion of the free-roaming animals very seriously. The horses aren't native to the area. They are descendants of works horses or riding horses that went wild some 60 years ago. Those were the days of open range when livestock was permitted to roam the hills and valleys for food and water.

In recent years the National Park Service has wanted to get rid of the horses because of potential environmental damage they could cause to the land now included in the popular and much-visited riverways area. Members of environmental groups have joined the fray, arguing that feral horses don't belong in the Ozarks.

Meanwhile, residents in the area who are sometimes noted for their stubborn views have staunchly defended the horses, mainly as symbols of natural beauty and freedom.

If Emerson's bill becomes law, the Missouri Wild Horse League would become responsible for managing the horses on privately leased pastureland. This would prevent having to kill the horses or ship them elsewhere.

Most folks in Shannon County will say that the horses aren't an environmental problem or a threat to the thousands of campers, hikers and canoeists who visit the riverways. As a matter of fact, the visitors themselves may be more of a problem than the horses.

There is another positive prospect that could result with passage of the Emerson legislation: Everyone who has turned a bunch of wild horses into a combative -- and, seemingly, never-ending -- argument will pretty much have the air taken out of their bombastic rhetoric.

The horses, meanwhile, will never fully appreciate that they were, for a while, a cause celebre in the halls of the U.S. Congress.