| Subject: "Lynx, wolves and grizzly bears are further at risk from the sheep grazing :" ????? |
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Date Posted: 10:35:54 07/01/07 Sun
Imagine a sheep threatening a big bad bear......
Conservationists File Suit Over Illegal Sheep Grazing in Yellowstone Area
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June 26, 2007 — By the Center for Biological Diversity
SILVER CITY, N.M. — Two conservation groups sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture today over the illegal grazing of domestic sheep on more than 100,000 acres of public lands in and near the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of Idaho and Montana. The presence of these domestic sheep, and management actions taken on their behalf, hurts sensitive and endangered native wildlife such as Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, lynx, gray wolves and grizzly bears.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project filed suit against the Sheep Experiment Station, Agricultural Research Service and Forest Service, all agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Sheep Experiment Station itself manages about 48,000 acres, where it is grazing sheep without any environmental analysis or consideration of impacts to endangered species. The Sheep Station also grazes sheep on over 54,000 acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management allotments, where its permits have expired, management plans date back to the 1960s, and little to no analysis has been completed.
"It's not the 1870s anymore," pointed out Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Yet the federal government is allowing grazing in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with its world-class wildlife herds and rare animals, without permits."
"The Sheep Experiment Station is a relic of the past," said Jon Marvel of Western Watersheds Project. "It is time to protect our wonderful native wildlife on these public lands lest we risk losing them."
The conservationists point to systemic violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the Public Rangelands Improvement Act. The conservation groups also sent the agencies notice of intent to sue under the Endangered Species Act.
The 100,000 acres of public land where the sheep are grazed include important connective habitat for any wildlife attempting to travel between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the large wilderness and roadless areas of central Idaho.
Epizootic diseases transmitted from domestic sheep also threaten bighorn sheep herds.
"The largest concentration of bighorn sheep in the world is jeopardized by this lawless grazing," said Robinson.
Lynx, wolves and grizzly bears are further at risk from the sheep grazing by predator control measures, since steel leghold traps and strangulation snares, aerial gunning, and poisons are all typically used to prevent wildlife from preying on domestic sheep. Without environmental analysis the public has been kept in the dark as to impacts on wildlife.
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