Bighorns and domestic sheep

[Ben Lamb]

My theory is this - If a sheep ain't worth mounting it ain't worth feeding. . Speaking of bighorns only with that statement. Don't want my Montana friends to take that quote literally.

I admit it. I was disturbed at you callous lack of support for the MT backcountry girlfriend.

 

[1_pointer]

I really have not use for those range maggots. Is there a piece of wildlife ground they have not destroyed when given the opportunity?

I have authorized their use to change vegetational composition for the better. IMO, they are easier to manage and can be more effective in altering habitat to benefit wildlife than other types of livestock. Funny, how when there were more sheep on the mountains and the agencies were managing for such that we had much more mule deer and sage grouse...

These two sage hens came from a sheep allotment.

There is a concerted push to open grazing allotments for domestics.

Are these allotments that are currently closed or are they just not being used at the current time? Or are they just trying to increase the amount of authorized use on active allotments?

 

[DavidKeenan]

My theory is this - If a sheep ain't worth mounting it ain't worth feeding. . Speaking of bighorns only with that statement. Don't want my Montana friends to take that quote literally.

Was thinking about putting that on the back of the OYOA T-shirts. Or, something like this.

Mount your sheep!

Would have to include a picture of a big ram on a pedestal mount, so the Montana members did not misconstrue what I am advocating.[/QUOTE]

Fin,
I'm glad you clarified that. Someone would surely misconstrue that remark :hump: But if you were make one I'm sure dink would want one lol I like those kind of tee shirts.
Like " This humps for you", from Humphrey sports bar in Gillette, WY. Or get "Get your pork pulled " The barbecue shack in Daytona Beach.

 

[Big Fin]

I have authorized their use to change vegetational composition for the better. IMO, they are easier to manage and can be more effective in altering habitat to benefit wildlife than other types of livestock. Funny, how when there were more sheep on the mountains and the agencies were managing for such that we had much more mule deer and sage grouse...

These two sage hens came from a sheep allotment.

Pointer. I am glad to hear that is possible. Where ever I encounter them or their presence, it looks like lunar landscape when they are done.

I am admittedly biased toward native sheep and grow frustrated that the disease transmission from these non-native sheep restricts where we can re-locate our native sheep.

 

[1_pointer]

Looking like a lunar landscape has nothing to do with it being sheep. That's piss-poor management, regardless of the livestock being grazed.

Though its been a few years, but in talking with a vet student at Univ. of Idaho, the vet program there was working on the disease issue between domestic and wild sheep with some promising preliminary results. That could be a win-win...

 

[theat]

That would be fantastic news for wild sheep but everything I have read sounds pretty pessimistic about coming up with a viable immunization let alone effectively administering it in wild sheep populations.

I have to agree with Big Fin on the lunar landscape observation, on most of the places I have been that are actively grazing sheep you would have a hard time finding a blade of grass let alone any wildlife(excluding coyotes)

 

[Oak]

Final answer. Sheep ranchers get one more year before the Forest Service manages for bighorn sheep viability on the Payette National Forest, as the NFMA mandates.

Domestics more important than bighorns

Domestic sheep ranchers only get a one year delay in actions designed to protect bighorn sheep on the Payette National Forest.

The final Interior and Environment appropriations bill would forbid federal agencies from taking any action to protect bighorn sheep if it reduces the number of domestic sheep grazing on public lands. But it only lasts one year instead of five years.

The rider, added to the bill by Republican Rep. Mike Simpson from Idaho, would stop the reductions on grazing ordered by the U.S. Forest Service on the Payette National Forest to prevent the transmission of disease to the wild sheep.

 

[wyoming556]

While checking deer in Nebraska i got a chance to talk to talk to the girl who kept track of the sheep that were relocated to Nebraska years ago near ft Robinson st park. She indicated that the herd was suffering from the same problems of interacting with domestic animals. Last year they did not give out any tags and this year there was one for a resident and one that was auctioned for around 125k if i remember correctly. Hopefully that auction $ can help fix the problem. Sad to see all that hard work and $ dying off.

 

[Ben Long]

I note that the State of Montana puts the value of ONE adult bighorn ram at $38,000. How many woolies would it take to equal that? Western states are big enough for both wild and domestic shape, but what is happening now is a tragedy. Idaho, in particular, could host far more bighorns if we could keep a healthy buffer between the woolies and the bighorns. It ain't about the grass so much as the disease.

 

[Oak]

There are currently two draft bighorn sheep DAU plans open for comment in Colorado. Both herds have serious potential conflicts with domestic sheep on USFS allotments. For those inclined, Colorado Parks and Wildlife could really use some comments from sportsmen in support of bighorn sheep. The woolgrowers have their hackles up, and I'm sure they will be commenting early and often. This is the second draft and second round of comments. The first draft received comments from woolgrowers in support of a maintained or reduced bighorn population. The comment periods end January 21.

The two plans are on the right hand side of the page:

DAU plans open for comment

.

 

[Ben Lamb]

http://missoulian.com/news/state-an...cle_574d1dc8-36e8-11e1-9a1c-0019bb2963f4.html

Sheep w/ Pneumonia found inside Yellowstone NP.

The future of sheep is in a pretty precarious position. All sportsmen and women need to stand together to ensure that there will continue to be sheep. Oak's statement about woolgrowers commenting early and often is right. If we don't show up and push back, then we have noone to blame but ourselves when more opportunity and more sheep are lost.

 

[BuzzH]

Thats just all kinds of good news...say bye-bye to the unlimited hunts.

Every domestic sheep and goat in the West should be killed.

Heres the correct link:

http://missoulian.com/news/state-an...cle_364e0700-36e7-11e1-8068-0019bb2963f4.html

 

[Oak]

Simpson may have done well on the wolf front, but he is definitely no friend to bighorn sheep.

FOREST SERVICE: Agency halts plan to separate bighorn sheep from domestic herds in Idaho
(Monday, March 5, 2012)
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

The Forest Service said it will cut short a plan to prevent domestic sheep from transmitting a deadly disease to their wild kin on Idaho's Payette National Forest.

The decision by Forest Supervisor Keith Lannom comes three months after Congress inserted a policy rider in an appropriations bill that barred the agency from further reducing the level of domestic sheep grazing on national forests, a move that angered wildlife advocates (Greenwire, Jan. 20).

Lannom's announcement halts a 2010 decision to reduce domestic grazing on the forest by 70 percent in order to reduce the risk of contact between the two species and prevent the transmission of fatal respiratory disease from domestic sheep and goats to bighorn sheep.

The agency last year implemented the first phase of the decision by reducing the amount of suitable grazing lands from about 100,000 acres to roughly 55,000 acres. The agency will no longer implement the final two phases, which would have reduced suitable acreage by more than 16,000 additional acres.

"The Payette National Forest has done an admirable job in balancing various interests while addressing this complex natural resource issue since 2005," said Regional Forester Harv Forsgren. "By halting implementation of the 2010 decision at the 2011 level in accordance with the 2012 Appropriations Act, Forest Supervisor Lannom continues the tradition of taking a balanced approach."

Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said he inserted the policy rider to prevent more sheep grazers from being driven off the national forests.

But Craig Gehrke, director of the Wilderness Society's Idaho office in Boise, said the rider followed more than five years of public involvement and undermined a consensus among wildlife biologists that domestic sheep and goats should be kept away from bighorn sheep and their habitat.

"Over the past decade bighorn sheep populations in the western U.S. have plummeted, in large part due to diseases contracted from domestic sheep grazing on public lands," Gehrke said in an email. Like early Native Americans who died from smallpox and measles transmitted by early Europeans, bighorns have no immunity to diseases carried by domestic sheep, he said.

The Forest Service today said its hands are tied.

"The forest is complying with the requirements of the act while at the same time providing a lowered risk of contact between the two species," Lannom said in a statement.

Simpson, who is the House's top appropriator for the Forest Service, in January told Greenwire he is unsure whether he will seek to extend the restrictions in the next budget bill.

He said he will wait to see whether scientists are successful in developing a vaccine that could inoculate bighorns from catching the pneumonia-like disease.

"We want to take a breather and see if the people working on the vaccine, if that's a viable alternative," he said. "Some scientists say they're getting close."

Gehrke said researchers warn an effective vaccine is as much as 15 years away.