Bighorn sheep, and much other wildlife will benefit-

In a big surprise, including to the now unhappy Idaho congressionals, Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack has told Congress he will close the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station (USSES) near Dubois, Idaho. The station covers 16-thousand acres of summer grazing in the Centennial Mountains — on the Continental Divide (CD) in Idaho and Montana. USSES headquarters office is on a 28,000 acre facility six miles north of Dubois. This 28,000-acre sheep station (a name similar to a ranch) has offices, a laboratory, residential buildings, lambing facilities, and dry-lot facilities for research. It also has land for spring and fall grazing.

The U.S. Sheep Experiment Station was established in 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson. He withdrew the acreage from the public domain to function as a rangeland grazing and sheep breeding research facility.

Western Watersheds Project and many other conservation organizations have long been critical of the use of the closed to the public, public land for this facility. As our readers can see, WWP and three other conservation groups are currently suing USSES to protect grizzly bears. Critics say the Station conflicts strongly with bighorn sheep (transfer of disease), grizzly bears, and other wildlife that does not naturally mix well with sheep. The location of the lands also serves as a migration barrier to animals that would move along the CD from the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem to vast mountains, backcountry and Wilderness of central Idaho.

Closure of the USSES should, and hopefully will, soon see the lands opened to public access and enjoyment after a century. This includes some very scenic land on the CD portion of the Station.

The Experiment Station over the years has become more and more a subsidy to Idaho’s handful of large woolgrowers. Earlier they developed several breeds of sheep, including the Columbia, Polypay and the Targhee. Taxpayers subsidize the Station to the tune of about 2-million dollars a year. USSES also grazes three public grazing allotments in the general area (in addition to the Station lands). Taxpayers lose over $200,000 a year on this free public grazing.

The monies spent at the station will reportedly be redeployed to other publicly supported agricultural activities in Idaho. These look like they are not related to livestock.

Congress has 30 days to disapprove of the Secretary’s action. It is hard to see how this can be done in the current, pass-no-legislation Congress, though Idaho’s congressionals say they will try. Why?

Here is the story in the Idaho Falls Newspaper (Post Register).