Idaho Sheep Ranchers are Struggling Against Reality. The law and science are not on their side so they are pressuring the State to come up with a solution to protect them. On Thursday February 26th the second meeting of what is being called the “Bighorn Sheep/Domestic Sheep Advisory Group” was held in Boise. At this…
F&G will move or kill bighorns to keep them from mixing with sheep. Interim strategy to prevent domestic herds from passing disease to wild ones has woolgrowers’ support but draws fire from sportsmen, Nez Perce and environmentalists. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman. So the outrage forced upon Idaho Fish and Game has been officially announced.…
Here is another story on effort by the woolgrowers to take over and divert bighorn sheep management in Idaho. It is on the front page of the Magic Valley Times News today. I’d judge the article to be just fair in its accuracy. Battle over bighorns. State seeks solutions to domestic vs. wild sheep conflict.…
Barker has an amazing story this morning . . . the “Cassia County Board of Commissioners voted to ask [Butch] Otter to relocate bighorn sheep from the South Hills near Twin Falls because of conflicts with domestic sheep.” Of course, Otter can’t legally order this. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission can. They are supposed…
Earlier, we ran an exclusive story that the livestock industry and various officials were having a secret meeting at the request of Idaho’s governor to counter the federal courts because they were insisting that sheep operations keep their disease-ridden bands away from bighorn sheep in Hells Canyon (Idaho/Oregon border) and on the lower Salmon River…
The Nez Perce Tribe issued a news release today expressing concern that in the upcoming grazing season there was a high probably of domestic sheep mixing with bighorn in Hells Canyon where restoration of bighorn herds has gone slowly. The Payette National Forest has promised to solve the problem (because the FS Chief upheld an…
Domestic sheep grazing in the Gravelly Range, Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, Montana. Photo George Wuerthner A recent article on the Helle family and their domestic sheep grazing operations on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest was published In a November Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The piece was a puff piece on the sheep grazing practices of the Helle family…
The Bighorn National Forest is one of the hidden gems of the West. With peaks towering to over 13,000 feet and spacious flower-studded meadows, the forest is an underappreciated scenic and wildlife haven of the West. The Cloud Peak Wilderness on the Bighorn National Forest is a lake-studded area of granite basins. Photo George Wuerthner …
Ken Cole is a 5th generation Idahoan, an avid fly fisherman, wildlife enthusiast, and photographer. He is the interim Idaho Director for Western Watersheds Project.
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