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There is a rumor that top Idaho state legislators met today in Boise with the Governor’s office of Species Conservation, the Bush Forest Service, the Bush BLM, Idaho Fish and Game, and perhaps one member from the Federation for North American Wild Sheep to strategize how they can stop the spreading legal victories by Advocates…
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Another big win for Western Watersheds Project and Advocates for the West in conserving and restoring Idaho’s wildlife heritage. Story in the Magic Valley Times-News. By Keith Ridler. Unfortunately the link to this story on the great victory is dead.
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Over at the Western Watersheds blog, there is an important story how sheep growers are organizing to hit back at the slow recovery of bighorn sheep. Oh! Not to speed it up, but to stop it and reverse it. Domestic sheep are lethal to bighorns because domestic sheep are full of diseases. Bighorn are also…
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It is a bacteria called mycoplasma ovipneumoniae. It is apparently common in domestic sheep and goats, but easily causes fatal pneumonia in bighorn sheep. Story Organism ID’d That May Be Killing Bighorn Sheep. By Keith Ridgler. AP. (as printed in the Seattle Post Intelligencer). “All indications are that the domestics are passing diseases and killing…
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A couple weeks ago I posted a news release from the Nez Perce Tribe how the Forest Service was not living up to their committment (mandated by an earlier court ruling) to keep domestic and bighorn sheep apart in Hells Canyon. Now the Western Watersheds Project has gone to court. Here is their news release.…
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Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Ram. Photo George Wuerthner Bighorn sheep acquired their name for the large circular horns of the mature rams. They are strongly associated with mountain terrain, particularly steep hills and cliffs, which protect them against predators. They graze upon grasses and other plants. In general, bighorns are associated with drier parts of…
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Conservation groups win injunction in Sheep Experiment Station grazing lawsuit BOISE, Ida. – A federal court in Idaho blocked domestic sheep grazing in bighorn habitat on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest yesterday, ruling that the risk to the South Beaverhead Mountains bighorn sheep population from deadly disease outweighs any possible benefit to the government-run grazing operation.…
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Disease ridden domestic sheep killed off the bighorn in early 1900s and pose the same disease barrier today- As has been written so many times, domestic sheep are full of diseases that are fatal to their wild cousin, the bighorn. Now plans to restore the mighty bighorn to the rugged Bridger Mountains to the northeast…
Author
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.