Northern San Juan • Entered by Robyn Cascade on September 4, 2023
Bighorn Sheep Advocacy
May 8, 2023 – August 31, 2023
Participants and Hours
| Pre Planning hours | 3 |
| Post Admin hours | 4 |
| Activity Hours | 18 |
| Participants | 1 |
| Total Hours | 25 |
Key Issue: Wildlife Protection
Activity Type: Advocacy (rallies, lobbying, meeting decision makers, letters/calls/emails)
Key Partners: BHA, RMBS
Measurable Outcomes
Outcome 1: Advocacy actions (3 comments)
Short Description of Activity
Attended three monthly BLM SW subRAC committee meetings regarding the BLM Gunnison Field Office permit renewal for domestic sheep grazing in three high-risk allotments – American Flats, American Lake & Henson Creek. Provided oral comments at all three meetings and written comments for two of those meetings. Conferred with bighorn advocate partners regarding providing comments and with elected officials regarding the outcomes of these meetings.
Reflection/Evaluation
Bighorn advocates, including Broads, considers these subRAC committee meetings as a stall tactic and honestly a waste of time when the bighorn home range overlaps with these three high-risk allotments. The science demonstrates that it is impossible to achieve effective temporal or spatial separation of bighorn and domestic sheep on this landscape. It’s very frustrating to see the wasted resources, time and energy to host these meetings in order for BLM to obtain a recommendation from the SW RAC when the science research and data are very clear that, to achieve effective separation, these three allotments need to be closed to domestic sheep grazing. Equally frustrating is that the current RMP for the Gunnison Field Office requires the analysis of a no-grazing alternative during the NEPA process, however it does not allow for the selection of that alternative as the preferred alternative or proposed decision. Therefore, in order to close the allotments (which to date the subRAC is not even considering) the RMP would need to be amended and likely the analysis of alternatives reworked. The months pass in this federal agency clusterf**k while this Tier 1 bighorn herd is at risk of disease transmission from domestic sheep and a potential die-off or significantly diminished lamb recruitment.
Photos/Uploads
Upload 1 |
Upload 2 |
Photo Captions
1. Broads comments to subRAC June 2023
2. Broads comments to subRAC August 2023