As recently reported in The Durango Herald and The Journal, grazing domestic sheep on public land can put bears in direct conflict with sheep herders. Thankfully, it sounds like the herder in the story is recovering from his injuries. What wasn’t covered in the article is that Wildlife Services, a tax-supported agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, helps permittees kill black bears, coyotes, mountain lions and bobcats before and during grazing season. This subsidized predator control occurs on public land, even in designated wilderness areas.
Domestic sheep can carry pathogens that can be transmitted to wild Bighorns resulting in pneumonia, die-offs and reduced lamb survival. Respiratory disease results in significant suffering and death that occurs nearly every year in Bighorn populations in the West. It is the major underlying reason why Bighorn populations remain stagnant to declining in Colorado.
In the works for more than a decade, pending agency decisions on domestic sheep grazing allotments in the Weminuche Wilderness, and on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands near Ouray are delayed. Citizens should demand that these agencies close high-risk domestic sheep grazing allotments, especially in wilderness areas.
Domestic sheep permittees in southwest Colorado should take advantage of voluntary allotment retirement programs that pay a fair market price for the value of their public land grazing permits. A recent University of Wyoming analysis showed that nearly all permittees that took an allotment buy-out remained in ranching. They adjusted their operations just as other family-owned businesses have done.
Dan Parkinson
Durango
