Four Montana herds, two in Washington plagued by disease-
Here is another update on the pneumonia killing so many bighorn. The article also gives the total estimated bighorn populations of Idaho, Montana, and Washington.
Hard times hit area bighorns. By Rich Landers. Spokesman-Review.
“The Payette National Forest [in Western Idaho] recently released a draft proposal for keeping domestic sheep from intermingling with wild bighorns. The plan was triggered by a lawsuit that charged the forest with failing to adequately protect wild sheep from the risk of contracting pneumonia from domestics.”
This draft is something I’ll put a link to when I find it. Webmaster
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Here is a link to the Payette’s news release on the update, and upcoming informational meetings in ID: http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/payette/news/2010/012510_BHSsuppinforelease.shtml
And here is a link to the updated info itself: http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/payette/publications/big_horn/index.shtml. Note that these are large files to download, so folks may want to request a CD to be sent to them (which is what I’ve done).
Thanks Debra K! webmaster
I downloaded the entire document (7.21MB) at the single link in about 5 minutes, which was slower than my usual 8MB/minute D/L speed. The site might ‘throttle’ their D/Ls, it might have been busy, or my ISP might be overloaded today.
Update to the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement January 2010 – Entire Document (7.21MB)