Red Lodge Clearinghouse

Recovery plan released for endangered bighorn sheep

Help is on the way for the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep. The Fish and Wildlife Service yesterday released its final recovery plan for the mountain-dwelling subspecies whose numbers dwindled to approximately 100 animals in 1995.

The 215-page document outlines specific procedures for protecting the bighorn and sets concrete criteria for a viable population, a prerequisite for the species' removal from the endangered species list.

The Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, whose range includes Tuolumne, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo and Mono counties in southern Nevada and California, has a current population of between 325 and 350 individuals, up from 125 when it was given an emergency listing as an endangered species in 1999, but far shy of a viable population.

The bulk of the recovery plan, issued by FWS's California/Nevada operations office, addresses the bighorn's two main threats: contact with domestic sheep and predation from mountain lions.

Because contact with domestic populations that may harbor pneumonia and other illnesses can eliminate an entire herd of bighorn, the recovery plan calls for buffers between areas where ranchers can buy permits to graze domestic sheep and lands designated as the bighorn's "critical habitat." Though nearly all of the critical habitat is located on public land, for those rare cases in which critical habitat intersects private land, the report calls for landowner education and, should the landowner choose, voluntary exchanges of the land.

With predation from mountain lions posing a risk to bighorn sheep, the report calls for the predators to be tagged, tracked and, when they are found to be a threat to bighorns, shot. The needs of the bighorn, however, are to be "carefully balanced with concerns for the viability of the mountain lion population," according to the report.

Like all recovery plans, the aim is to achieve a viable population, one that needs no human assistance, within the species' natural habitat. The report defines that population as a minimum of 305 females one year of age or older distributed across a minimum of 12 of the 16 zones designated as "critical habitat." Additionally, measures to prevent bighorn and domestic sheep from coming into contact would have to be implemented and demonstrated as effective.

The recovery plan is projected to cost $26.7 million dollars over 20 years, according to an economic impact report commissioned by FWS and compiled by Industrial Economics Inc. released on Jan. 31. Not all of that money, however, is new spending -- roughly half of the costs reflects lost revenue due to the cessation of permit sales.

The costs are not exorbitant, according to Bob Williams, field supervisor for the Nevada Fish and Wildlife Service. "Considering the population, we are putting forward what is required in terms of the species," he said. "If we were spending anything less, we would be in a situation where the population is declining."

According to Williams, the species owes its modest recovery to measures undertaken by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, which have cooperated in efforts to protect bighorn habitat and control the mountain lion population.

But Chris Kassar, a biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity, considers the assignment of critical habitat, which is detailed in the recovery plan, to be the critical step in protecting the bighorn sheep. Kassar's organization sued FWS in 2005 over its failure to designate critical habitat. Kassar says the habitat was to follow soon after the species' endangered listing in 1999.

"Studies show that species that have critical habitat do markedly better than those that don't," Kassar said. "It provides important and useful maps for land managers and clear guidelines for what can and cannot be done."

Kassar's high hopes for the plan did not come without reservations. "I hope they set the population for delisting high enough," she said. "Sometimes people forget that the Endangered Species Act is about a species' recovery, and not just about its survival."

As well as reaching a significant number, Kassar says she believes that, for the population to be viable, it needs to span all 16 of the segments identified in the report. The report mandates 12 zones.

Williams believes the bighorn sheep, which is locally known as the "bravest of all the Sierra Nevada mountaineers," will continue to recover, provided that the recovery plan is closely followed.

Kassar hopes so. "It would be a shame," she said, "to see the hallmark species of the Sierra Nevadas disappear because of a lack of effort on our part."

Click here to read the final recovery plan.

Click here to read the economic impact report.

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Comments (0) Add Comment