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Tell the Forest Service - Restore bighorn populations!
It has been estimated that Idaho once was home to tens of thousands of bighorns. Now, there are only an estimated 2000 bighorns statewide. The only way to ensure recovery of bighorn sheep in Idaho is to stop contact between bighorns and domestic sheep that carry diseases that have ravaged bighorn populations. Please tell the Forest Service that you support their efforts to provide disease-free habitat for bighorn sheep in Idaho's Hells Canyon and the Salmon River canyon. Ask them to close all domestic sheep allotments and domestic sheep trailing routes that pose any risk of contact between bighorns and domestic sheep. Please note: Once you have taken action, your message is sent to the policy maker and may become a part of the public record.
Dear [ Decision Maker ] , Thank you for the opportunity to comment on bighorn sheep restoration on the Payette National Forest in and adjacent to Hells Canyon and the Salmon River Canyon. I support the Forest Service's efforts to provide disease-free landscapes for bighorn sheep populations on the Payette National Forest. The Forest Service should close all domestic sheep allotments and trailing routes that pose any risk of contact with bighorn sheep. This is best accomplished through adoption of a management alternative that eliminates all risk of disease transmission from domestic sheep to bighorn sheep on the Payette National Forest. Research on disease transmission between domestic sheep and bighorns has concluded that bighorns will not survive contact with domestic sheep. The Forest Service must provide disease-free landscapes on the national forests if bighorns are to ever recover to robust, sustainable populations. Bighorn sheep symbolize the Western landscape in places like Hells Canyon and Salmon River canyon. Please take decisive measures to restore bighorn populations. Thank you.
Sincerely, |
Campaign Launched: |
| Background Information |
Hells Canyon, where the Snake River flows between Idaho and Oregon, is the deepest gorge in North America. Together with the nearby canyon of the Salmon River, the famed "River of No Return," these two rugged landscapes could provide the foundation for a restored bighorn population in central Idaho.
For more than 100 years, domestic sheep grazing on public lands in Hells Canyon and the Salmon River canyon have exposed bighorns to diseases carried by domestic sheep for which bighorn sheep have no resistance. Time and time again herds of bighorn sheep have died after coming into contact with domestic sheep.
It has been estimated that Idaho once was home to tens of thousands of bighorns. Now, there are only an estimated 2000 bighorns statewide.
Trend surveys along the Salmon River on or adjacent to the Payette National Forest indicate bighorns have declined 70 percent over the last 30 years. The decline in bighorn numbers is attributed to bighorns dying after contact with disease-carrying domestic sheep. While champions of the domestic sheep industry and some politicians deny that domestic sheep transmit disease to bighorns, researchers from across the West consistently conclude that disease transmission from domestic sheep to bighorns is real.
The only way to ensure recovery of bighorn sheep is to stop contact between bighorns and domestic sheep. Thousands of domestic sheep grazing on public lands in and adjacent to Hells Canyon and the Salmon River canyon pose a chronic risk of disease transmission to bighorns. The Forest Service is proposing that domestic sheep grazing be stopped in areas where contact between the two species is likely to occur. By eliminating recurring contact with domestic sheep, bighorn populations should start to recover and the populations once again rebuild.
