Bozeman, MT. Today five conservation groups Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, Gallatin Wildlife Association and Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation sent the U.S. Department of Agriculture a notice of intent to sue for its failure to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the effects of sheep grazing on the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station on the Montana/Idaho border.
In 2010 the agency (Sheep Station) promised (issued a public notice) that it would complete the environmental review, but instead it has unlawfully delayed completion of the review. This EIS and decision affects bighorn sheep and grizzly bears. The potential appellent conservation groups want sheep grazing stopped until the EIS analysis is complete.
Biologists have identified the Centennial Mountains of the Continental Divide as an important travel corridor for grizzly bears because it connects Yellowstone National Park with the large wilderness areas in Idaho. These have been determined to have ample grizzly bear habitat, but no grizzly bears. 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 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, BLM, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; 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 Sheep Experiment Station has become a death trap for grizzly bears,” said Bryan Bird, Wild Places Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “We hope that our action will prompt that U.S. Government to reconsider its priorities of domestic sheep over wildlife.”
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.
The conservation groups’ notice says they will file the lawsuit if the Sheep Station attempts to graze before the EIS is completed. “It should not take 4 years to prepare an Impact Statement,” said John Meyer, Executive Director of Cottonwood Environmental Law Center. “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.”
Glenn Hockett, President of Gallatin Wildlife Association, said “The Centennial Mountains offer some of the most remote public lands and best bighorn sheep habitat in North America.” Ken Cole, NEPA coordinator for Western Watersheds Project, said that “There is a high risk that the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station’s domestic sheep will transmit deadly pneumonia to bighorn sheep.” The Bureau of Land Management stopped allowing the Sheep Station to graze on one of its allotments in 2012 because of bighorn concerns.
The Wildlife News has published numerous article on the Sheep Station and its effects on wildlife.
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Notice of Intent to Sue- pdf