Dr. Dan Parkinson’s column regarding the U.S. Forest Service’s upcoming decision on the future of domestic sheep grazing in the Weminuche Wilderness (Herald, Feb. 12) hits the nail on the head.
Domestic sheep producers use our public lands responsibly, but the negative impact on bighorns is clear. Continued domestic grazing in the Weminuche will inevitably lead to limited bighorn populations.
Dr. Parkinson noted that bighorn numbers are a tiny fraction (less than 3 percent – that’s three, not 30) of their population 150 years ago. Bighorns were once distributed throughout the West in areas that had adequate rugged terrain that allowed them to evade predators. This included areas on the plains, like the Purgatorie Canyon in Southeastern Colorado, low-elevation canyons and mountains.
The bottom line is that when domestic sheep and bighorn sheep come in contact, the bighorns lose. Maybe not immediately, but it will happen. Sometimes that loss is subtle, as in decreased bighorn lamb production or survival, but it will happen.
The U.S. Forest Service will be making a stark choice: continue to allow individual economic gain through domestic sheep grazing, or protect the tiny remnants of an iconic and important native species, a public resource that belongs to all of us.
Gary Skiba
Aztec, NM
