WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission Weighs in on U.S. Sheep Station Grazing

Congressional Leaders Urged to Protect Recreational Interests in Montana.
Contact: Bryan Bird (505) 699-4719 bbird@wildearthguardians.org

Additional contact:
John Meyer, WildEarth Guardians (406) 546-0149
Glenn Hockett. President, Gallatin Wildlife Association (406) 586-1729

Helena, Mont.—A powerful voice is calling on Montana’s congressional delegation to end government sheep grazing on 16,000 acres of public lands along the Montana/Idaho border. WildEarth Guardians and its conservation partners want the sheep grazing ended as well and the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, ID closed to protect wildlife in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The letter from the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission to Senators Daines and Tester as well as Congressman Zinke adds to the chorus of voices.

"Its far time to end this handout to the sheep industry," said Bryan Bird, Wild Places Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. "These public lands belong to all Americans and they deserve to see them managed for wildlife and other public benefits."

Also, on Tuesday, conservation groups released a report showing that 85 percent of Montana’s wild sheep herds are at risk of disease due to domestic sheep. The National Wildlife Federation, Montana Wildlife Federation, Wild Sheep Foundation and Montana Wild Sheep Foundation sponsored the report.

In 2014, four groups sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station including Gallatin Wildlife Association, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, and Cottonwood Environmental Law Center.

“The Sheep Station is a black hole for grizzly bears.” Said John Meyer of WildEarth Guardians.  “We are asking the federal government to hold off on grazing domestic sheep in important wildlife habitat until it has fully analyzed the environmental impacts of its operations.”

Biologists have identified the Centennial Mountains as an important travel corridor for grizzly bears because it connects Yellowstone National Park with large unoccupied wilderness areas in Idaho. The U.S. Sheep Experiment Station has been using this land since 1915 to graze thousands of domestic sheep, and there have been several grizzly bear mortalities in the area in the recent past.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, Park Service, BLM, MT FWP and Idaho Fish and Game sent a joint letter to the Sheep Station in 2012 asking them to find an alternative area to graze sheep.

“The ARS has attempted to lock up these public lands in the Centennial Mountains and prevent public access for hunting and hiking,” said Glenn Hockett, President, Gallatin Wildlife Association, “instead opting to pasture government domestic sheep to the detriment of native wildlife, in particular bighorn sheep.”

In the fall of 2012, the collar from a grizzly bear was found in a stream under a rock on Sheep Station property. An empty rifle cartridge was recovered from the sheep herder’s camp and hunters were ruled out as suspects. The conservation groups subsequently challenged the Biological Opinion for the Sheep Station, which concluded that the federal facility was not jeopardizing grizzly bears. The government settled the case and agreed to issue a new biological opinion by June 2014.