We are thrilled to report that last week, after three years of negotiation and collaboration with a Wyoming sheep producer, the National Wildlife Federation completed a grazing retirement to reduce wildlife / livestock conflict on 67,000 of public lands in the Wyoming Range south of Jackson, WY. This grazing retirement protects critical high-elevation habitat for mule deer, bighorn sheep and a host of other native wildlife. By compensating the rancher to waive his permit, he is able to purchase alternate grazing that minimizes wildlife / livestock conflict. It's a win for wildlife and a win for a rancher who can now continue raising domestic sheep without harming wildlife.
After a century of continuous domestic sheep grazing, many areas of the Wyoming Range have degraded wildlife habitat and additionally pose a significant threat to bighorn sheep herds who are especially susceptible to disease transmission from their domestic counterparts. In many situations, these disease outbreaks (a form of pneumonia) causes entire herds to die off. For a species that once inhabitat nearly every mountain range in the intermountain west, bighorn sheep have suffered tremendous declines over the past centuryand current populations remain only a fraction of their historic abundance.
We are making tremendous progress and are shifting grazing patterns in the West to accomodate wildlife and secure a future for domestic livestock production. To date, NWF has retired over 1.1 million acres in the West to benefit wildlife, including bighorn sheep, grizzly bears, wolves, and native fisheries.
We have several exciting opportunities on the horizon, including a critical 85,000 acre allotment in central Idaho where domestic sheep pose a significant risk to endangered Chinook salmon. Many thanks to our supporters for making this tremendous progress capable!
In a huge victory for wildlife, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock last month granted wild bison more room to roam around Yellowstone National Park. It’s the first time in 30 years that bison can migrate safely – and without harassment – outside the park!
Join us in thanking Gov. Bullock for expanding habitat for wild bison and helping public lands be the home to wildlife they were mean to be.
You may ask, Why now? Gov. Bullock pointed to reduced livestock/wildlife conflicts as the main reason for issuing his decision. That means NWF's Wildlife Conflict Resolution Program is working! NWF has worked tirelessly with cattle ranchers, the Park Service and the Forest Service to allow for year round tolerance of bison as they migrate out of the Park during the winter months searching for forage. By retiring key grazing allotments north and west of Yellowstone (Horse Butte, Slip n Slide, Royal Teton Ranch) concerns of disease being spread from bison to cattle has all but been eliminated.
Governor Bullock noted specifically:
-Cattle are no longer found on Horse Butte because of change in ownership and subsequent changes in land use
-On the west side of the park, there are no active cattle allotments on the public lands which constitute over 96% of the area to be accessed by bison.
Of course, this isn’t the end of our work restoring wild bison.
With help from generous people like you, we’ve eliminated conflict on over a million acres of public land, through voluntary negotiations, retiring grazing leases often provides long-term security to both western ranchers dependent on public lands to make a living and the wildlife who depend on those lands to survive. In the coming years, we hope to double the number, giving wildlife like bison and bighorn sheep safe spaces to roam their natural habitats.
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The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) continues to make excellent headway in reducing conflicts between wildlife and livestock on public lands. Due to the amazing success of the program and support of our donors for our work in the northern Rockies, we've been able to expand our Adopt-A-Wildlife Acre program to the southern Rockies. Last month we were able to complete our first grazing retirement in Colorado, laying the foundation for a successful expansion of our program and securing substantial additional habitat for wildlife.
We recently completed a grazing agreement with a private grazing permittee to address a prolonged conflict between livestock and wildlife that has been taking place outside of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The focus of this effort is the Sarvis Creek North Allotment on the Routt National Forest, which encompasses 31,000 acres in the USFS Sarvis Wilderness Area.
In particular, the geography of the allotment requires extensive management effort to move cattle outside of the Sarvis Creek drainage. This fact has resulted in the concentration of cattle in and around Sarvis Creek, resulting in streambank erosion, stream incision, sedimentation and damage to the fishery located in the Wilderness Area. The Sarvis Creek area also hosts prime fishing and hunting territory, and is increasingly sought after by hikers and wilderness enthusiasts during summer months.
The concentration of cows in the drainage has led to conflicts with recreationalists and additional management investment from the USFS to assure that access to the Wilderness Area is maintained. With increasing recreational use anticipated from nearby Steamboat Springs, conflicts between grazing and anglers, hunters and other recreationalists is likely to grow. Lastly, the concentration of cows along Sarvis Creek has led to trespass into the adjacent Sarvis State Wildlife Area. Due to grazing issues on the Sarvis Creek North Allotment, the Wildlife Area has seen a decline in conditions resulting in impacts to wildlife habitat and recreation.
This agreement seeks to find an equitable solution for livestock and wildlife interests. This market approach recognizes the economic value of livestock grazing permits and fairly compensates the producer for retiring their lease. We are excited about the future prospects of our work in Colorado and securing critical habitat for species such as bighorn sheep, trout, elk and deer.
*In addition to our expanded work in the southern Rockies, in February NWF's Northern Rockies Regional Center released a report titled, "Bighorns, Big Risks", documenting the decline of Montana's treasured bighorn sheep population. Most notably, 39 of Montana's 46 bighorn sheep populations are at risk of disease exposure from domestic sheep.
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The National Wildlife Federation continues to make great success in eliminating wildlife / livestock conflicts on public lands in the West. Most notably, last month NWF negotiated a grazing agreement with a domestic sheep producer in central Idaho (Lemhi Mountains) to retire his allotment to protect neighboring bighorn sheep.
While this allotment retirement was quite small (25 sheep on 5,000 acres) the risk of those domestic sheep passing deadly pneumonia to their wild counterparts was extremely high. By compensating the rancher to retire the allotment, he is able to sell the sheep and afford the costs to convert his entire operation to cattle, which pose no disease risk to area wildlife and are a less likely target for predation. A win for wildlife and a win for a long-time family ranch.
This retirement is also significant in that it was the last remaining domestic sheep allotment in the entire Lemhi mountain range- thereby securing a future for one of Idaho's healthiest populations of domestic sheep.
In addition, several other grazing agreements are in the works, two sheep allotments in Idaho and another five in Wyoming and our first grazing agreement in Colorado--in the Sarvis Creek Wilderness near Steamboat Springs, will likely be completed in the coming weeks. 2016 is shaping up to be a big year for wildlife and wild places and it wouldn't be possible without the continued support of our donors!
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The National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Conflict Resolution Program (Adopt-A-Wildlife Acre) has continued to make excellent progress in reducing livestock / wildlife conflicts in the northern Rockies. In August, the National Wildlife Federation finalized a grazing agreement on the Limestone Irving / Middle Creek domestic sheep grazing allotments in the Centennial Mountains, straddling the high divide of the Montana / Idaho border, west of Yellowstone National Park totaling 82,000 acres.
Since the Adopt-A-Wildlife Acre program was founded in 2002, the National Wildlife Federation has resolved conflicts on over 1 million acres for wildlife in the west!
This Limestone Irving / Middle Creek retirement, with seven allotments in total, is one of the largest and most important retirements NWF has negotiated on the High Divide, a critical East to West wildlife corridor between Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and Yellowstone National Park. Domestic sheep allotments in the area have faced chronic conflicts with both large carnivores and bighorn sheep.
The domestic sheep allotments retired are adjacent to occupied bighorn sheep habitat in Montana’s Tendoy Mountains. We focused our efforts in this region because the bighorn herd in the Tendoys has dwindled in recent years due to disease transmission that likely occurred from co-mingling between the two species. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will be culling the existing herd in the Tendoys this fall and plans to reintroduce clean bighorn sheep to the region in the coming year. Due to this critical retirement, bighorn sheep will have a fighting chance for a comeback in the Tendoy Mountains and their range and populations will be allowed to expand south to the Lima Peaks area and over the Idaho border.
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