Idaho sheep experiment station no more

[RobG]

Dang... a blow for supporters of sheep munching our public grass and their shepherds SSSing grizzly bears. Maybe bighorns in the Centennials now?

http://www.postregister.com/article.../26/clark-county-employer-likely-closing-down

I knew they were under fire with the latest grizzly poaching, but never expected they'd give up this questionable operation. This would never have happened if Idaho had their way.

A telling quote of R fiscal responsibility:

[Idaho] Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter said the station is facing closure because it loses about $1.5 million a year. Otter said he will protest the closure decision.

I guess now all sheep experiments will have to be conducted on private land...

[edit... I guess it isn't a done deal yet, but I'm hoping another dumb government program bites the dust.]

 

[JoseCuervo]

Dang... a blow for supporters of sheep munching our public grass and their shepherds SSSing grizzly bears. Maybe bighorns in the Centennials now?

http://www.postregister.com/article.../26/clark-county-employer-likely-closing-down

I knew they were under fire with the latest grizzly poaching, but never expected they'd give up this questionable operation. This would never have happened if Idaho had their way.

A telling quote of R fiscal responsibility:


I guess now all sheep experiments will have to be conducted on private land...

[edit... I guess it isn't a done deal yet, but I'm hoping another dumb government program bites the dust.]

There is a Texas joke there, somewhere....

 

[RobG]

How do you lose $1.5 million when your budget is only $1.9 million? That's throwing 80% of public money down a rat hole, not to mention hurting our wildlife.

 

[noharleyyet]

There is a Texas joke there, somewhere....

Perhaps, but you'd have to plagiarize a Montana joke to tell it...

 

[katqanna]

How do you lose $1.5 million when your budget is only $1.9 million? That's throwing 80% of public money down a rat hole, not to mention hurting our wildlife.

Rob, ask Paul Griffin, he has all the research on that, which was part of the lawsuit, if I remember correctly.

Because the USDA is not permitted to produce sheep for market, the sheep experimented on and grazed there are owned by the University of Idaho who receives the proceeds and subsidies from the surplus sheep sold to market.

The location of the lands used by the USSES are particularly important to many species because of their value as dispersal corridors. Wolves, grizzly bears, bighorn sheep, wolverines, and many other species require these landscapes to maintain or establish connectivity between habitat in Yellowstone and Central Idaho. Bighorn sheep, which are increasingly becoming isolated in island populations, are particularly affected by the presence of domestic sheep in the Centennial Mountains and areas to the west because of fatal disease issues. They are at risk of contact on the BLM Bernice Allotment and the USFS Snakey and Kelly Canyon allotments which have occupied bighorn sheep habitat. There is also a small group of bighorn sheep which use Mt. Jefferson on the east end of the Centennial Mountains adjacent to the ARS East Summer Range.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Perhaps, but you'd have to plagiarize a Montana joke to tell it...

Like all things good in life, the best comes from Montana.

 

[RobG]

Rob, ask Paul Griffin, he has all the research on that, which was part of the lawsuit, if I remember correctly.

I Googled Paul Griffin sicne I don't know who he is... and got this thread. Like the world is circular man. I have been slacking in my activism so haven't been paying attention... never thought this call for closure would go anywhere.

Found Paul's letter though. I remember thinking he must be nuts when I first read it. Shows how little I know. http://www.bozemandailychronicle.co...cle_d823f900-9e36-11e3-ad52-0019bb2963f4.html

I support Phil Knight's call to close the old agricultural sheep experiment (ARS) station located along the crest of the Centennial Mountains on the Idaho border. ARS owns 48,330 acres and astoundingly does not consider these public lands. ARS never conducted an analysis of their operations as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. Thirty years late and due to a lawsuit, the NEPA environmental impact statement process was started. The sheep station bureaucrats continue to evade legal mandates by dragging out the process for five years now and promoting the preferred alternative as no change, which means continued federal expenditures and grizzly bear conflicts. The appropriate alternative would terminate the existence of the station, return all public lands used back to usage by the ecosystem’s native wildlife, and end all Agricultural Department and politician-sponsored requests for appropriations that might perpetuate it.

This old U.S. Sheep Experiment Station is an anachronism that does not have a mission, has outlived its purpose for domestic sheep research, and has little relevance to the domestic sheep industry in the Northern Rockies. Public land-based open range domestic sheep production is a politically driven subsidized economic model based on grazing fees of $1.35 per five animals compared to the average private land fee of $20.50. This is unfair competition for modern farm flocks that are the future of domestic sheep production.

The old Sheep Experiment Station is in the middle of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem astride the critically important wildlife habitat corridor connecting Yellowstone and Idaho wild lands necessary for grizzly bears. Elimination of domestic sheep grazing in the Centennial Mountains is a critical step towards creating a landscape scale bighorn sheep herd encompassing the Gravelly and Snow Crest mountain ranges and surpassing the Missouri Breaks as the premier bighorn herd in Montana.

Paul Griffin

Bozeman

 

[Dinkshooter]

so, so sad. Range maggots gone!

 

[katqanna]

lol, Rob, Paul Griffin is one of the guys that sat at the table with us at the GWA meetings, often you two were next or near each other at that end. Has a business degree, think he worked at MSU for awhile, loves to crunch numbers. Anyway, he did tons of research on the sheep station and the files were used in the lawsuit against it, which may be part of why they are trying to get it shut down. I dont know if that would cause the lawsuit to cease.

 

[RobG]

Ha, now I know who he is! The one regular that I didn't know his name. I haven't been there for more than a year. Probably before they started pursuing the sheep station issue.

 

[katqanna]

Thats okay, some of them didnt know your name either. Its been almost a year since I have been as well. The sheep station thing was before I even joined up over 2 years ago. The thing was, while the domestic sheep kept there were a threat and had caused some pneumonia die off to the Bighorns, either nothing could be done about it or no one would do anything about it. Enter the protected grizzly. With the killing of the protected grizzly, then someone would pursue it legally. I cant remember the conservation attorney here in Bozeman that was pursuing this.

Now, while I am for protecting any wildlife from illegal shootings, my bigger issue is with the damn pneumonia transmissions to the Bighorns from domestics. This is kind of like my calling around to some of the conservation groups about the elk last spring, to see if any would get involved and one lady telling me that there were so many elk, she didnt see what the problem was. When I asked her how many of them did they have to kill off before she cared, I realized there was no money in it for them. Neo conservation groups dont care about diseased domestic sheep killing off our bighorns - until populations get so low and they can make money off of "save the endangered bighorn sheep". What about being proactive?

So while I understand the issue with some grizzly killing there, I would be ecstatic if the lawsuit was over getting the unnecessary domestics out to protect the bighorns (how many of them get killed?) and get a precedent setting case on the books that could be used to protect other bighorn populations from pneumonia, like in Gardiner with Hoppe bringing in those sheep a little over a year ago now.

 

[RobG]

I meant after the lawsuit was filed. I remember another bear shot a dozen years ago... the station has always been a target.

John Meyer of Cottonwood law in Bozeman led the lawsuit, joined by Gallatin Wildlife Association and a couple others. http://www.cnsenvironmentallaw.com/2013/05/20/1890.htm

 

[Dinkshooter]

So while I understand the issue with some grizzly killing there, I would be ecstatic if the lawsuit was over getting the unnecessary domestics out to protect the bighorns (how many of them get killed?) and get a precedent setting case on the books that could be used to protect other bighorn populations from pneumonia, like in Gardiner with Hoppe bringing in those sheep a little over a year ago now.

My gut tells me there will be several of these across the west here shortly, it is indeed time someone pushed back against domestics for BHS.

 

[RobG]

Neo conservation groups dont care about diseased domestic sheep killing off our bighorns - until populations get so low and they can make money off of "save the endangered bighorn sheep". What about being proactive?

So while I understand the issue with some grizzly killing there, I would be ecstatic if the lawsuit was over getting the unnecessary domestics out to protect the bighorns (how many of them get killed?) and get a precedent setting case on the books that could be used to protect other bighorn populations from pneumonia, like in Gardiner with Hoppe bringing in those sheep a little over a year ago now.

Nobody is breaking any laws with domestics vs. Big Horns... no grounds for a suit.

 

[RUT JUNKEY]

Like all things good in life, the best comes from Montana.

I just threw up in my mouth a little. . . LOL

 

[katqanna]

Nobody is breaking any laws with domestics vs. Big Horns... no grounds for a suit.

Rob, cases can extrapolate from existing precedents. I would find it terribly ironic if someone used the DOL disease threat justification for going after the bison (supposedly to protect the livestock), apply it towards proactively protecting our Bighorns. APHIS is supposedly all about disease eradication in livestock, yet domestic sheep can trail around public lands infecting Bighorns with pneumonia and potentially bison with malignant catarrhal fever.

So if the argument for DOL jurisdiction is to prevent possible disease transmission and eliminate range overlap, guess what, that is one of the recommendations that was primary to the WAFWA in their "Recommendations for Domestic Sheep and Goat Management in
Wild Sheep Habitat", which Montana participated in and utilized in the creation of the 2010 Bighorn Sheep Conservation Strategy - take appropriate steps to eliminate range overlap, and thereby, opportunities for association and subsequent disease transmission.

So if bison cant come into Montana to prevent frickin never a documented case of wild bison to domestic cattle transmission ever - use that legal reasoning to limit the range of diseased domestic sheep that have been documented to transmit to Bighorns.

And by the way, I have raised some sheep and goats in my life, hope to again, but never in large amounts and never would I have them in an area that would threaten Bighorns or bison. Off to a lunch meeting or I would b*tch about this hypocrisy more fully.

 

[katqanna]

Ironically, this was in my email box when I just got back. Not a fan of game ranching, but the documentation and confirmation by a st vet will be helpful.

Captive deer died from disease transmitted from sheep
"Necropsies showed the animals had contacted malignant catarrhal fever, a disease transmitted to the deer by domestic sheep held in the same enclosure...The disease is almost 100 percent fatal in wild animals, Frazier said."

 

[BigHornRam]

Kat,

Can you give me a list of these "neo conservation" groups you are talking about? Thanks.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Rob's right.No laws have been broken, there is no case to be made, even in the unfortunate instance on Mount Jumbo earlier this spring.

In many cases, we've lost battles related to bighorns thanks to the Montana Legislature essentially forcing sheep on some WMA's, etc. We beat back two attempts to eliminate the authority of FWP to transplant sheep anywhere in the state in 2013. Everyone should expect those bills to come back again in 2015 as well as a host of bad legislation from the MT Wool Growers & their lobbyist.

If you really want to know why Montana manages sheep the way we do, then read the management plan: http://fwp.mt.gov/fishAndWildlife/management/bighorn/plan.html

Closing the experiment station is great and it's long time it happened. The reality is the blow-back is going to be fierce and it's already heating up in congress.

Every action has an unequal and forceful reaction when it comes to sheep & politics. Batten down the hatches, we're in for stormy weather.

 

[Oak]

Surprise, surprise. Always best to be a gracious winner and move on, rather than thumbing your nose at the opposition.

Simpson: Idaho sheep research station closure blocked
Subcommittee denies USDA request, but Simpson says battle isn't over.

BY DAN POPKEY, [email protected]
July 16, 2014 | Updated 6 hours ago

Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson said Wednesday that the Department of Agriculture's move to begin closing the U.S. Sheep Experimental Station has been halted by the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.

The USDA had announced plans to begin shutting down the nearly 100-year-old station near Dubois in eastern Idaho on Friday if appropriators didn't object.

Simpson said in a news release that the Agriculture subcommittee denied the Obama administration's request to reprogram funds and close the station.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/07/16/3282717/simpson-sheep-research-station.html#storylink=cpy