USFWS called “wrong” to say no grizzlies had been killed on Sheep Experiment Station on Idaho/Montana border, Continental Divide Area

Boise, ID. On May 17, 2013 the Western Watersheds Project, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, Native Ecosystems Council and Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation filed a suit in federal district court to challenge domestic sheep grazing that has been “jeopardizing the continued existence of the protected Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear population.”

This grazing is on the Continental Divide area of the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station, long a contentious area over the conflict between sheep and several kinds of wildlife. The Wildlife News has written more articles about the Station than probably any other news media.

The lawsuit states that “Meeting notes between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Sheep Experiment Station obtained through the Freedom of Information Act state that within the past 8 years, there have been several grizzly bear mortalities near the Sheep Experiment Station. Last fall, the cut collar of a missing four-year old male grizzly (#726) was found hidden under a rock in a creek on the Sheep Station. The collar was found close to where the government’s sheep were being grazed, and a spent rifle cartridge was found at the sheepherders’ camp. The body of the bear was never found but the sheepherders were never questioned.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) had previously made an official determination that sheep grazing on the Station would not harm the rare bears. This determination came before this grizzly went missing last September under suspicious circumstances.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture grazes domestic sheep under legal protection of a Biological Opinion (B.O.) from USFWS. The B.O. states “no known grizzly bear mortalities have occurred in or near the action area [Sheep Station] in the recent past.”

Western Watersheds said, “Grizzlies are dying on and near the Sheep Station as a consequence of this government grazing. That fact cannot be ignored any longer and the lawsuit will compel the government to reconsider the consequences of sheep grazing in the Centennial Mountains on the Idaho-Montana border.” In other words, the plaintiffs are seeking to have the court order the defendants to “promptly complete” a new B.O. on the Station and the grizzly bear, as mandated by the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.

In previous WWP actions regarding this controversial piece of U.S. Public Land withdrawn from BLM administration for USDA use — the Sheep Station, a couple of sheep grazing allotments have been closed. These menaced nearby bighorn sheep with the pneumonia that domestic sheep carry and frequently transmit to bighorn, so killing off the herds of their valuable wild cousins.

The Sheep Station portion on the Continental Divide is high scenic country in the Centennial Mountains which is also inside occupied grizzly bear habitat.