A plan to relocate bighorn sheep to the Lewis and Clark Caverns area was shot down this week after landowners in the area said they weren’t sufficiently notified of the proposal and opposed it.

It was the first attempt to transplant sheep under Montana’s first-ever Bighorn Sheep Conservation Strategy, which was adopted in 2010. The discussion at Thursday’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission meeting touched upon a key issue hotly debated during the strategy’s creation: whether an adjacent landowner can have veto power over the move.

“This situation definitely calls to mind the extensive discussions we had when contemplating the bighorn sheep strategic plan over one word,” said Commissioner Ron Moody, who on Friday explained that the word had to do whether FWP “should” or “will” consult neighboring landowners. The final adopted version says that before initiating a transplant, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks “will coordinate and cooperate with local landowners” before moving the wild sheep.

But Terry Murphy, a state senator from Cardwell who represents part of Lewis and Clark County and Jefferson County, also happens to own a large ranch near the caverns, and said he only found out about the proposed move at the last minute.