December 21, 2008

Zimo: Help protect Hells Canyon bighorns

Comment on how to keep domestic and wild sheep from mixing in the Payette forest

PETE ZIMOWSKY - Pete Zimowsky / pzimowsky@idahostatesman.com

Comment on how to keep domestic and wild sheep from mixing in the Payette forest

The bighorn ram trotted up the trail overlooking Granite Rapids in Hells Canyon about 20 yards away as I was scouting the rapids.

It took my breath away. Seeing bighorn sheep is an experience you never forget. Watching that ram cross the trail and then run up the hill is burned in my memory, even though it was more than a decade ago.

His eyes gave me a stealthy stare. He carried a majestic set of horns, and you could see the muscles in his legs as he easily traversed the steep hillside.

The future of Hells Canyon's bighorn sheep is in your hands.

The Payette National Forest has extended until March 3 the comment period on a bighorn sheep draft environmental impact statement.

That's good because more people need to know about the plight of bighorn sheep.

WILD SHEEP DYING

Most biologists believe that when wild and domestic sheep get together while grazing on the public lands, the wild sheep get pneumonia.

The culprit killing bighorns, they say, is a pathogen that is carried by domestic sheep.

But domestic sheep growers and some other scientists disagree.

The easiest way to become familiar with the controversy is to watch an Oregon Public Television program that aired this fall. "Oregon Field Guide," an outdoors show, had an excellent segment on the problem. Check out: www.opb.org/programs/ofg/episodes/view/2003.

Let's go back in history. Bighorn sheep were wiped out of the Hells Canyon area around 1940 by disease and overhunting.

They were reintroduced in the canyon in 1971, and the herd has grown to around 900. About 10,000 once roamed the area.

The "Oregon Field Guide" program starts off by taking you to the Wallowa Mountains in the dead of winter where biologists are inoculating wild sheep one by one to prevent disease.

A controversy is ever growing on the Idaho side of the Snake River in Hells Canyon on whether domestic sheep grazing is causing the problem and should be allowed.

Sheep grazing is not allowed on the Oregon side of the Snake River, but bighorns swim back and forth between Oregon and Idaho.

Conservationists are asking the Payette National Forest to find alternative grazing allotments for domestic sheep to get them out of historic wild sheep habitat.

BUREAUCRATIC LANGUAGE

It's hard for the public to understand the bureaucratic foreign language in the draft environmental impact statement.

The crux of the draft is how to manage the separation of domestic sheep and bighorn sheep in the Payette National Forest. It can affect bighorns and the businesses of sheep ranchers.

Information can be found on the Payette's Web site at www.fs.fed.us/r4/payette/publications/big_horn/big_horn_sheep_documents_index.shtml/.

The link can be found on the forest home page under Bighorn Sheep DSEIS. Be forewarned, it's a lot of stuff.

For copies of the document and additional information, you can call Patti Soucek, a Payette Forest planner, at (208) 634-0812.

It's important. This is about the fate of a majestic wild animal in Hells Canyon.

There are economic concerns, too. Statistics from the North American Wild Sheep Foundation show the benefits of healthy herds of bighorns:

- The tour operators, like commercial jet-boat outfitters, provide the U.S. Forest Service with $90,000 per year for use privileges, as well as bringing many clients to local communities and businesses.

- More than a quarter of a million visitors to Hells Canyon annually hope for a chance to see a bighorn sheep. (With more than 900 bighorns in 17 herds, there's a good chance, whether you are rafting, fishing, hiking or on a tour jet boat.)

- Many local businesses use photos of bighorns on their brochures and Web sites.

- Wildlife-associated activities in Idaho produce more than $808 million in total expenditures annually, and the amount is expected to increase.

- Wildlife viewing alone produced more than $81 million in food and lodging revenues in Idaho.

- Last year, nearly 30,000 visitors signed in at the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. These visitors spent $140 per day, per person. Most visitors come to Hells Canyon for the wildlife watching and history, and the bighorn is the big draw.

If you boil down all the bureaucratic language, conservationists want the Payette National Forest to keep domestic sheep outside of bighorn sheep habitat.

They want the national forest to find alternative grazing allotments outside of bighorn sheep habitat for domestic sheep growers in the area.

You can e-mail your comments to the U.S. Forest Service at payettebighorn@fs.fed.us.

All I know is that seeing a bighorn sheep is an unforgettable experience.

Pete Zimowsky: 377-6445