© 2024 Wyoming Public Media
800-729-5897 | 307-766-4240
Wyoming Public Media is a service of the University of Wyoming
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Transmission & Streaming Disruptions
A regional collaboration of public media stations that serve the Rocky Mountain States of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Idaho, Montana Lawsuits Say Bighorns Get Sick From Domestic Sheep

The Gravelly Range in Montana is the site one of dispute over domestic sheep grazing in the West.
National Forest Service
The Gravelly Range in Montana is the site one of dispute over domestic sheep grazing in the West.
The Gravelly Range in Montana is the site one of dispute over domestic sheep grazing in the West.
Credit National Forest Service
The Gravelly Range in Montana is the site one of dispute over domestic sheep grazing in the West.

Environmental groups want to stop sheep grazing on public lands in the region. The issue is playing out in the courts in Idaho and Montana.  

The plaintiffs want to eliminate the grazing in part because domestic sheep can make wild sheep sick--with diseases like pneumonia. 

Chase Adams is with the American Sheep Industry Association.  He’s skeptical. "That pathogen has been found to be endemic in bighorn herds across the west ... So that really calls into question the current analysis around complete and utter separation." 

But disease transmission isn’t the only concern for wildlife advocates. 

Greta Anderson is with Western Watersheds Project. She says introducing domestic animals puts native predators at risk--like grizzly bears and wolves. When they prey on livestock, sometimes managers decide to remove or kill the predators. 

"And then the native predator species are removed lethally in order to 'manage' them," says Anderson.  

The latest disputes over domestic sheep grazing are playing out in the courts for the Gravelly Range in Montana and the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Idaho.

Find reporter Amanda Peacher on Twitter @amandapeacher.

Copyright 2018 Boise State Public Radio

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Copyright 2021 Boise State Public Radio News. To see more, visit Boise State Public Radio News.

Amanda Peacher is an Arthur F. Burns fellow reporting and producing in Berlin in 2013. Amanda is from Portland, Oregon, where she works as the public insight journalist for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She produces radio and online stories, data visualizations, multimedia projects, and facilitates community engagement opportunities for OPB's newsroom.
Amanda Peacher
Amanda Peacher works for the Mountain West News Bureau out of Boise State Public Radio. She's an Idaho native who returned home after a decade of living and reporting in Oregon. She's an award-winning reporter with a background in community engagement and investigative journalism.
Related Content