I wanted to commend Paige Blankenbuehler’s “The Big Threat to Bighorns” (HCN, 9/3/18). My friends and I do a big backpacking trip each year in Western wilderness areas. This year, we did a roughly 40-mile loop through the Flattops Wilderness in northwest Colorado. There were few people, but lots of cows. For roughly seven miles, cattle often blocked the hiking trail. When we hiked up and onto the higher alpine tundra areas, we encountered domestic sheep.
This is not unique to Colorado. I have encountered cattle and sheep while backpacking in some of the West’s most remote wilderness areas. As much as I sympathize with the sheep rancher in the article, the reality is that the vast majority of Colorado’s citizens want these wild lands to be just that: wild lands. The fact that disease from domestic sheep could wipe out Colorado’s entire bighorn sheep population makes it unbelievable that we keep our public lands open to grazing. Once again, science is ignored in favor of industry.
Joel Strohecker
Denver, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Bighorns, big livestock herds.
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