Bighorns, Bears, and Bad Blood

[BigHornRam]

Well written piece.

Bighorns, bears and bad blood: grazing v. wildlife on Owl Creek - WyoFile

Game and Fish, BLM, wildlife conservationists and a rancher are locked in battle over bighorn sheep, grazing permits and cattle-killing grizzlies.

www.wyofile.com

 

[Deleted member 18333]

There is a lot in that article that makes me want to pull, what's left of, my hair out.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

BH....thanks for the link. Yes, a very well written piece.

Sad for the bighorns but with hope that ALL parties can come to some kind of rational agreement. I'm a big private property rights guy but having to shoot ram groups from the air makes my blood boil!

On a lighter note, seems to be a good place to find a G-bear when ever the season/hunt actually happens.

 

[Trial153]

Screwed up on so many levels

 

[520 Road Sow]

Good article but sure has some boiling points like noted above. Bighorn management by helicopters....... meh not so much.

 

[Deleted member 39961]

"Not in my back yard." Said the guy who moved to a ranch surrounded by federal lands.

 

[Big Fin]

His pieces are always well done, well researched, and seemingly makes all efforts to get opinions from all sides involved.

This one makes it hard to see the domestic sheep as anything other than a weaponized disease vector in hopes of getting his way. If not for one of the most prized bighorn herds in the country, I would be against any concession to a person wanting to leverage things in this way. Yet, as much as I dislike working with folks of such disposition, the risks to this population require doing whatever can be done.

Sounds like a larger and longer running issue to the "newly found need" for grazing domestic sheep here in Breaks country of Montana. Lots of similarities; upset landowner, spread known disease to treasured wild herds to try get his way, game agency and BLM almost hamstrung when public wildlife moves to private lands where they will like be exposed to known pathogens.

Sucks. Absolutely sucks. And surely does nothing to improve the relationship among wildlife advocates and sheep producers who want to use public lands for grazing.

 

[Trial153]

I almost think conservation groups should create a pool of funding to litigate this situation, try to hit this guy in the pockets as hard as we can as fast as we can.
One good turn deserves another.

 

[Addicting]

I almost think conservation groups should create a pool of funding to litigate this situation, try to hit this guy in the pockets as hard as we can as fast as we can.
One good turn deserves another.

What would they litigate that hasn’t already been done? If the Supreme Court couldn’t fix it, this won’t. This would just make lawyer’s wallets thicker.

 

[Jape]

Great share, @BigHornRam. Like a real-life version of Yellowstone.

Having grown up on a ranch in Wyoming, I have some sympathy for the landowner, but the mere correlation in time between losing the permit and obtaining his sheep herd (for the first time) kills his credibility.

 

[Jape]

This would just make lawyer’s wallets thicker.

What's wrong with that?

 

[El Jason]

This is a biological hostage situation pure and simple.

 

[elkduds]

Hopefully WY will prevail in the mediation.

 

[mtnrunner260]

He's not the first rancher to threaten wild sheep with disease in order to get his way.

 

[MTGomer]

In my opinion, all domestic sheep grazing allotments in historic bighorn habitat should be converted to cattle or terminated. If that takes litigation, then so be it.
The American taxpayer is under no obligation to subsidize land for ranchers to use to raise private livestock while infecting a prized public resource of native, wild animals. .

 

[BuzzH]

I have no sympathy for Frank Robbins...he's been a complete a-hole in this all along. He was violating his lease agreements and the blm finally got tired of it and took action. Frank is connected somehow with the Bush family and used that connection to try to put the squeeze on the blm. I forget all the specifics, but his connections ended up getting at least one blm biologist fired over his urination competition with the blm. When his political leveraging didn't work, he decided to start grazing sheep, totally about biological warfare to get his way. Frank Robbins is a miserable f#$&...no way to sugar coat it. He's a bully and the best thing that could happen is for him to go on a hunting accident and not come back. Let's put it this way he's got a lot of grizzlies around...I'm rooting for the bears.

His toxic attitude has spilled over to his son in law, another miserable bastard. I sat and listened to his ranting and raving at the July commission meeting and it was embarrassing to listen to it. They milk the feds and the state for everything they can. Subsidized grazing, wool and sheep meat subsidies, farm subsidies, outfitting, wildlife damage claims. They criticize everybody, make fun of people, and do it without even batting an eye. They need punched in the mouth...the best way to deal with bullies.

That family is a liability to the farm, landowner, and livestock industry...it's telling when Jim Magagna isn't even defending their actions.

There are just some people that are worthless individuals and offer nothing to society...that would be the case with them.

 

[Trial153]

What would they litigate that hasn’t already been done? If the Supreme Court couldn’t fix it, this won’t. This would just make lawyer’s wallets thicker.

Sue for damages, bleed them. We have more money than sheep at this point.

 

[Addicting]

Sue for damages, bleed them. We have more money than sheep at this point.

I don’t currently have more money than the amount of his sheep. You go right ahead and waste your money.

 

[Oak]

Some thoughts on this:

I support the collaborative approach to find solutions that protect wild sheep and keep domestic producers as whole as possible, IF the producers are working in good faith.

The Wyoming Bighorn/Domestic Sheep Interaction Working Group spent four years coming up with the final recommendations in 2004 that were eventually codified by legislation in 2015. The group has continued to meet for the last 15 years. The short version of the recommendations which you can read at the link above is that the state was divided into four classifications for bighorn sheep/domestic sheep management:

• Bighorn sheep core native herds (bighorn priority)
• Bighorn sheep non-emphasis areas (domestic sheep priority)
• Cooperative review areas (cooperatively managed areas potentially for both species)
• Bighorn sheep non-management areas (non-bighorn habitat)

Here is a map of the four designations.

Part of the agreement in the final recommendations was that all parties would support efforts to reduce/eliminate domestic sheep grazing from bighorn sheep core native herd management areas, but this would be done only through voluntary retirements, ie., nobody would be forced off their allotments. Over the last 15 years over $4 million was spent to incentivize allotment retirements in these core areas, and nearly all of the high-risk allotments have been retired. The very first permittee to cash a check for an allotment retirement was Jim Magagna, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President quoted several times in the article linked by the OP.

Now in the last year or so comes news that the WSGA and WWGA are trying to get the Bridger-Teton National Forest to make available for grazing over 20 allotments that have been closed for resource protection, including some which were closed through incentivized retirements. That sounds like some are not working in good faith.

All of the "orange" land in the map in that article that shows the allotments is the Wind River Indian Reservation. That tribe would swing a big stick in this issue if they chose to do so.

Finally, my printer has been chugging away next to me while I type this out, and I now have over 9,000 raffle tickets that I will be hocking on here in the next week. Proceeds will in part go to future voluntary allotment retirements here in Colorado like the three we funded in 2019. Some of us are still working in good faith. Buy early and often.

 

[Big Fin]

Leave it to Oak to bring forward history and facts. Thanks for sharing that here. Now, get a link to those raffle tickets posted up on the forum so the Hunt Talk crowd can win the tags and shoot a big ram like @Khunter shot this year.