For decades, wildlife officials from Idaho,
Washington and Oregon have worked hard to restore bighorn sheep to
the Hells Canyon area. But in December, they feverishly tried to
remove them after a deadly outbreak of pneumonia-like pasteurella.
Hoping to contain the disease, officials netted 72 sick sheep and
transported them by helicopters and trucks to a wildlife laboratory
in Idaho. There, all but 19 died. Lab tests suggest the stress of
being transported actually triggered their deaths. Back in the
field, the disease has spread south to the Hells Canyon National
Recreation Area; bighorns that died on site showed signs of getting
the disease from a feral goat. So far, the rescue efforts have been
most successful at reviving controversy over the impacts of
domestic livestock on wild sheep.
“We have a lot
at stake here,” says Lloyd Oldenburg, an Idaho Fish and Game
biologist. “The restoration project hangs in the balance.”
Domestic sheep in the area are also in jeopardy,
since many blame them for spreading the disease. In response to the
outbreak, a coalition of hunting and conservation groups has asked
for an injunction to speed up the removal of domestic sheep from
the recreation area. Forest Service officials say they plan to
close the remaining allotments by fall 1996 (HCN,
10/2/95).
“Management of that area has been a
tragedy,” says Pete Frost, a National Wildlife Federation attorney
in Portland, Ore. “The domestic sheep should have been out of there
two years ago.”
Meanwhile, wildlife officials
continue to look for ways to halt the epidemic; the most recent
tactic involves dispersing medicated salt licks throughout the
Hells Canyon area.
* Jenny
Emery
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Disease threatens bighorn restoration.
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