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Group Challenges the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station
Group Challenges the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station
Rare East-West Wildlife Linkage Placed At Risk for Needless Research
Contact: Greg Dyson, (503) 730-9242, gdyson@wildearthguardians.org
DENVER – WildEarth Guardians haschallenged domestic sheep grazing at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in theCentennial Mountains along the of Idaho – Montana border. The group submittedcomments yesterday in response to a proposal by the Agricultural ResearchService (ARS) to allow domestic sheep grazing at the Sheep Experiment Stationin historical bighorn sheep habitat.
“This is the Sheep Experiment Stationthat just won’t go away,” said Greg Dyson of WildEarth Guardians. “TheSecretary of Agriculture himself has said there is no need for it, yet the ARSinsists it has to graze domestic sheep in the Centennials, in one of the mostimportant wildlife corridors in the country.”
The Sheep Experiment Station was foundedin 1915 and has come under fire as the U.S. sheep industry has declined—thenumber of U.S. consumer sheep peaked in 1942 at 56.2 million; today there areless then 5.5 million.
The Centennial Mountains are a rareeast-west mountain range, forming an important wildlife linkage betweenYellowstone, Central Idaho and the Northern Rockies. Grizzly bears, blackbears, gray wolf, lynx, wolverine, and sage grouse inhabit the area and couldestablish more resilient populations through the connection of these ecosystemsvia the Centennials. It is also part of the only remaining habitat for theArctic Grayling fish in the entire United States.
The ARS has proposed grazing some 1,600domestic sheep at a time, despite the area being near three bighorn sheepherds. Domestic sheep are known to pass disease to bighorn sheep that can killoff a major portion of a bighorn herd immediately, and the disease can thenlinger in the remainder of the herd for years, making recovery all butimpossible.
“The ARS is in deep denial about thedisease domestic sheep pass to bighorn,” said Greg Dyson. “The only researcherthat still defends the domestic sheep industry works for the ARS. So instead ofreviewing all the science about disease transmission from domestics to bighorn,the ARS cited their own discredited researcher and ignored all the otherscience. It is downright unethical for our government to act so irresponsibly.”
A copy of the WildEarth Guardians comments is available here.