Thank you so much for Jonathan Romeo’s excellent article on sheep ranching in the Weminuche Wilderness (“
The goal of stabilization and increase of small bands of our rare native species of Rocky Mountain Bighorns is ecologically significant. My research proves that the Weminuche bighorn herd is one of the oldest in the state and was described prior to establishment of the San Juan National Forest in 1905.
For J. Paul Brown to sell one of his allotments in the Weminuche makes both ecological and financial sense. That’s the way capitalism is supposed to work. If a conservation group seeks to purchase a grazing allotment to provide ecological health for a threatened species, let them.
This is a great outcome.
As the author of “The Woolly West: Colorado’s Hidden History of Sheepscapes,” I can attest to the decline of public lands sheep grazing across the Western Slope. It is too hard to find dedicated herders, as J. Paul Brown knows. The profit margins simply are not there because most Americans eat less than a few pounds of lamb each year.
We should all eat more Colorado lamb – it is delicious, especially with jalapeño mint jelly – but those lambs do not need to graze in congressionally designated wilderness.
Andrew GullifordDurango
