Emergency Bighorn Hunt

Not good. Highly doubt many hunters who drew a ram tag would be willing to put it on a ewe or lamb after waiting for years to finally draw a tag.
 
I take a pretty firm stance on this issue. I know ranchers need to make a living, but once the bighorns are gone, there is no turning back. We protect bears, we protect wolves, but sheep can run amock in our public lands, threatening the very existence of the bighorn. If domestic sheep come within 1/4 me of a bighorn, it must be killed. That is how dangerous their diseases are to the bighorns. If a bighorn contracts disease from a domestic sheep and returns to it's family group, we stand the chance of losing the entire heard. A no-brainer in my eyes. We all know what the solution is, but nobody will say it.
The bighorn sheep is THE symbol of the beauty, ruggedness and freedom of the American West IMO.
 
It's disheartening to see public/private partnerships fail at the expense of the bighorns.
 
I take a pretty firm stance on this issue. I know ranchers need to make a living, but once the bighorns are gone, there is no turning back. We protect bears, we protect wolves, but sheep can run amock in our public lands, threatening the very existence of the bighorn. If domestic sheep come within 1/4 me of a bighorn, it must be killed. That is how dangerous their diseases are to the bighorns. If a bighorn contracts disease from a domestic sheep and returns to it's family group, we stand the chance of losing the entire heard. A no-brainer in my eyes. We all know what the solution is, but nobody will say it.
The bighorn sheep is THE symbol of the beauty, ruggedness and freedom of the American West IMO.

It's definitely a tough one, grizzlies aren't comparable because they still have ESA status.

Wolves are though as are black bears.

Ranchers are allowed to hammer black bears in CO.
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I don't think there is an easy solution.
 
Interesting read. Article states this particular situation revolves around domestic sheep grazing on private land, not public.

Complex, ugly, expensive issue for sure.
 
Interesting read. Article states this particular situation revolves around domestic sheep grazing on private land, not public.

Complex, ugly, expensive issue for sure.
Read the article linked in the thread below for more information on this situation. It's a patchwork of public and private land. The domestic sheep are grazing on private, but also BLM because there are no fences.

 
Everyone remain calm they are just opening area early for tag holders trying to encorage them to hunt there....not a big deal
 
I take a pretty firm stance on this issue. I know ranchers need to make a living, but once the bighorns are gone, there is no turning back. We protect bears, we protect wolves, but sheep can run amock in our public lands, threatening the very existence of the bighorn. If domestic sheep come within 1/4 me of a bighorn, it must be killed. That is how dangerous their diseases are to the bighorns. If a bighorn contracts disease from a domestic sheep and returns to it's family group, we stand the chance of losing the entire heard. A no-brainer in my eyes. We all know what the solution is, but nobody will say it.
The bighorn sheep is THE symbol of the beauty, ruggedness and freedom of the American West IMO.
SD lost its herd a couple years back (maybe ten now?) and it was from pneumonia most likely caught from domestic herd of sheep. They ended up having to plant two dozen new sheep from Canada to build the herd from nothing. It can be devastating.
 
Makes me a little sick to my stomach if the story is true, while I disagree with my local national forest circus and others, it’s just ridiculous to do this for a personal vendetta, not sure what a wildlife fence around his land would cost but I’d rather see hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on that than feeding his sheep... it’s though the try to reason with people that aren’t reasonable, horrible situation.
 
I know with wild vs. domestic sheep that it's enough of a fight to simply maintain the herds of wild sheep that exist now, let alone growing the population. But I have to wonder, if you zapped every domestic sheep out of bighorn habitat in an instant, how much growth and progress of herd populations could take place?

Would we see areas where sheep started to take off and grow in really vibrant numbers, or are there other factors preventing that?
 
It's definitely a tough one, grizzlies aren't comparable because they still have ESA status.

Wolves are though as are black bears.

Ranchers are allowed to hammer black bears in CO.
View attachment 148812

I don't think there is an easy solution.

I think the Bair Ranch got fairly burned up in the Grizzly Creek fire, wonder how it will affect the wildlife and sheep grazing there over the next few years...
 
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