Dear HCN,
Lynne Bama’s “Bringing
Back the Bighorn” (HCN, 2/3/97) raises important questions about
the wildlife management that private money (hunters’ money) can buy
– and threaten – on public lands.
However, I’d
like to add a positive comment. The Oregon Hunters Association,
with 4,500 members, has been a leader in protecting habitat for
Rocky Mountain bighorn in Hells Canyon. The group was a plaintiff
in the 1996 litigation challenging the Forest Service’s continued
permitting of domestic sheep in Hells Canyon. It has been working
with the Hells Canyon Preservation Council, other environmental
organizations, and the Nez Perce Tribe to oppose proposed roads and
developments in Hells Canyon.
As Bama points out,
Rocky Mountain bighorn need space and unroaded habitat free of
domestic sheep. While it is laudable that the Foundation for North
American Wild Sheep, a single-species focus organization, is
pledging money for bighorn reintroductions, it is the Oregon
Hunters Association that has been bringing together diverse
interests who know and love Hells Canyon, in order to restore not
only wild sheep but a wild Hells
Canyon.
Therefore, it isn’t really accurate to
say, as Bama does, that hunters and environmentalists aren’t yet
working together “toward the common goal of bringing the area’s
wild sheep back.” The Oregon Hunters Association has been doing so,
for years. In the process, these hunters have consistently elevated
wildlife habitat and conservation over trophy hunting or privilege
in Hells Canyon.
Mary
O’Brien
Eugene,
Oregon
The writer is ecosystem
policy analyst for the Hells Canyon Preservation
Council.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Kudos for some hunters.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
