To protect bighorn sheep, the Forest Service has
decided to kick the domestic variety out of Hells Canyon National
Recreation Area – again. The agency decided in 1994 to shut down
three grazing allotments that straddle the Oregon-Idaho border. It
feared that bighorn sheep reintroduced into the area were
succumbing to a deadly bacteria, Pasteurella, carried by the
domestic sheep. But forest officials backed off after receiving
strong opposition from the ranching community, which has used the
recreation area for more than 100 years. Now, with a lawsuit filed
by environmentalists hanging over its head, the agency has changed
its mind again and decided to remove the sheep by fall
1996.
“We haven’t been able to prove without
doubt that bighorn get the disease directly from sheep, but we
decided they still need to go,” says Myrna Evans, a spokeswoman for
the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. “They need to get the sheep
out of there now,” insists Ric Bailey of the Hells Canyon
Preservation Council, whose group sued the Forest
Service.
Bailey says Oregon state wildlife
officials recently found two dead bighorn rams that apparently died
from the disease after going nose-to-nose with domestic ewes. The
council, says Bailey, will seek a court order in early November to
force an immediate removal of the sheep. – Paul
Larmer
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Sheep vs. sheep in Hells Canyon.
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