Western Watershed Project

Joined
Jan 12, 2017
Messages
812
Location
Idaho Falls,ID
I was doing some research last night into bighorn sheep populations across the West. Found some states that have increasing population, Oregon, and some states that have decreasing population, Idaho. Maybe this is well known info, but it suprised me. The Idaho Wild Sheep Foundation blames domestic sheep passing viral or bacterial pneumonia to wild populations, and most other sites seem to agree. I've known about the pneumonia problem for a long time, but assumed that F&G had the problem figured out, but apparently they do not. Bighorns in several ranges are exposed to direct contact fairly often with domestic sheep, due to a variety of circumstances. The most common cause is Sheep herders grazing outside the boundaries of the allotment and not keeping the sheep contained.
This led me to the Western Watershed Projects site. They have been successful as recently as January in getting injunctions against sheep grazing on bighorn ranges here in Idaho. The injunctions are temporary, and they have a long road filled with political landmines ahead of them to get anything permanent accomplished, but it got me thinking that we as hunters could do more to help this situation. I called Western Watersheds this morning to learn more about them. They seem to be concerned with our big game habitat and public land just as much as any educated sportsman would be. They are anti-trapping and anti-wolf hunting, which I fully expected, but for some reason this wasn't a deal-breaker for me. I offered my assistance to them to be "eyes in the field" to help make sure these injunctions are adhered to until it becomes permanent or a court lifts the injunction. It felt weird to be offering assistance to a fairly liberal environmental entity, but near as I can tell they are doing more to help sheep than anyone else in the state. Results don't lie. Any Thoughts???
 

WRO

WKR
Joined
Nov 6, 2013
Messages
2,946
Location
Idaho
I was doing some research last night into bighorn sheep populations across the West. Found some states that have increasing population, Oregon, and some states that have decreasing population, Idaho. Maybe this is well known info, but it suprised me. The Idaho Wild Sheep Foundation blames domestic sheep passing viral or bacterial pneumonia to wild populations, and most other sites seem to agree. I've known about the pneumonia problem for a long time, but assumed that F&G had the problem figured out, but apparently they do not. Bighorns in several ranges are exposed to direct contact fairly often with domestic sheep, due to a variety of circumstances. The most common cause is Sheep herders grazing outside the boundaries of the allotment and not keeping the sheep contained.
This led me to the Western Watershed Projects site. They have been successful as recently as January in getting injunctions against sheep grazing on bighorn ranges here in Idaho. The injunctions are temporary, and they have a long road filled with political landmines ahead of them to get anything permanent accomplished, but it got me thinking that we as hunters could do more to help this situation. I called Western Watersheds this morning to learn more about them. They seem to be concerned with our big game habitat and public land just as much as any educated sportsman would be. They are anti-trapping and anti-wolf hunting, which I fully expected, but for some reason this wasn't a deal-breaker for me. I offered my assistance to them to be "eyes in the field" to help make sure these injunctions are adhered to until it becomes permanent or a court lifts the injunction. It felt weird to be offering assistance to a fairly liberal environmental entity, but near as I can tell they are doing more to help sheep than anyone else in the state. Results don't lie. Any Thoughts???

Read their blog/news page.

They're not our friend. That being said, they do some good things like many groups do that I agree with.
 
Joined
Aug 6, 2012
Messages
1,661
They will back anything that's anti-grazing but have not been a hunters friend overall.
The best method is groups like Wild Sheep Foundation permently buying out allotments of domestic sheep grazers.
I'd encourage you to support them.
 
OP
B
Joined
Jan 12, 2017
Messages
812
Location
Idaho Falls,ID
I don't know that there's truth to the stories about WSF purchasing domestic sheep grazing allotments. I've researched the requirements to obtain an allotment, and it would be virtually impossible for them to do so. First of all, unbeknownst to most, there is no monetary value assigned to the FS allotments....so "purchasing" one is literally impossible. That's right, sheep operations don't pay a penny to graze public land. Second, to obtain an allotment, you either have to purchase the sheep that are registered to that allotment, or purchase the home ranch or property, i.e. buy out the current operation. There is absolutely no record of the WSF ever participating in either of these events anywhere in Idaho, I belive the tales of them "buying sheep allotments" are falsified Fake News. If anyone has any evidence that WSF has obtained an allotment I'd be interested to know how that was accomplished.
 

MtGomer

WKR
Joined
Dec 18, 2016
Messages
326
Location
Montana —-> AZ
I don't know that there's truth to the stories about WSF purchasing domestic sheep grazing allotments. I've researched the requirements to obtain an allotment, and it would be virtually impossible for them to do so. First of all, unbeknownst to most, there is no monetary value assigned to the FS allotments....so "purchasing" one is literally impossible. That's right, sheep operations don't pay a penny to graze public land. Second, to obtain an allotment, you either have to purchase the sheep that are registered to that allotment, or purchase the home ranch or property, i.e. buy out the current operation. There is absolutely no record of the WSF ever participating in either of these events anywhere in Idaho, I belive the tales of them "buying sheep allotments" are falsified Fake News. If anyone has any evidence that WSF has obtained an allotment I'd be interested to know how that was accomplished.

Adopt a Wildlife Acre Program

This example is the Wildlife Federation, but is an example of how to retire grazing allotments. They’re not outbidding ranchers to get their allotments to get them off the land, they’re finding an agreeable price to get them to leave voluntarily.
 
Joined
May 29, 2012
Messages
3,474
Location
Lewiston ID
Western watersheds is the ranchers/loggers version of PETA. They are anti utilization of any sort and I’ve dealt with their lawsuits personally when I worked for the USFS. They like most environmental groups are extremely out of touch with ecology. I could go on and on but I would never support such a group.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
OP
B
Joined
Jan 12, 2017
Messages
812
Location
Idaho Falls,ID
Thanks for the replies. Don't think for a second that I agree with Western Watersheds on much if anything, I don't want it to look like I'm defending them. Mostly I'm frustrated with the fact that a group of eco hippies seemingly is helping sheep more than foundations that only exist in the name of wild sheep. A few liberal 20 year olds are stirring the pot and causing more "good" than any hunting or sportsmans entity. In fact, the last political move I saw the WSF do in Idaho was to try to get more sheep tags to auction off to raise $$. Sounds an awful lot like SFW.
 
Joined
Aug 6, 2012
Messages
1,661
I know one the the things WSF has done in Utah is to purchase GPS collars and provide funds to get them on sheep. That has allowed biologist to monitor populations better and also provide early detection of possible wild/domestic interactions when those collared sheep roam from their typical home range. They have also used funds from tag sells to capture and relocate sheep to new areas which has started new herds.
I'm personally not a fan of Western watersheds but if their efforts in this case result in removal of domestic sheep in areas with wild sheep it will be a benefit to the wild sheep herd even if that was not the intended purpose.
 
OP
B
Joined
Jan 12, 2017
Messages
812
Location
Idaho Falls,ID
Thanks mtn runner for the info. I have a lingering bad taste for WSF lately after the political debacle they were found to be involved in here in Idaho last year. Their leadership was pressing F&G to release some tags for auction so that they could use them as an advertisement for their annual banquet. When the Commission posture against the tags, WSF "urged" Governor Otter to not reappointed those commissioners involved. Otter obliged, and 2 good men lost their positions. I was not aware of the funds that WSF provided for GPS collars and research. I guess, in a nutshell, my beef with most "foundations" is that they seem to exist merely to stroke the egos of the board of directors. I like to see a more direct, aggressive approach to issues like declining sheep herds.
 
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