Bighorn Sheep around SEKI

[Bob Gross]

As many of you know, Bighorn Sheep are found along the eastern side and a bit within the Sierra Nevada Range of California. This is adjacent to and within parts of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, near the John Muir Trail and other good backpacking trails.

I just happened to be browsing around the Inyo National Forest web site, and there was a link to a National Park Service document up for immediate public comment. The document is "Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Environmental Assessment: Research and Recovery Actions."

In a nutshell, they are proposing to use helicopters and net-guns to capture some excess bighorns east of the crest and relocate them to the southern part of Sequoia around Big Arroyo and Laurel Creek. Late 2011 and early 2012, I believe.

I read the document and commented.

How would you like to be lugging your pack up one of the east side trails when a helicopter zooms overhead? Or you are hiking along one of the Big Arroyo trails, and suddenly a disoriented 300-pound bighorn sheep meets you? This will be interesting.

–B.G.—

[obx hiker]

Bob I have a book suggestion: "Eating Stone" by the late Ellen Meloy. I think her family used to own a ranch in what is now Sequoia (mentioned in another of her books named "Turquoise")

Maybe they're trying to get sheep into the Kaweahs? Ought to be a good spot with plenty of space.

[Bob Gross]

Yes, I guess the Kaweahs would classify as the Big Arroyo area. Pretty close.

There are several bighorn herds on the East Side that are thriving, and they have a few of these other diverse areas where the sheep are unknown, so the feds want to yank some up and deport them to these new areas. The feds want public comment now so that they can rationalize how they will be spending more taxpayer dollars later in the year. They need to seek public comment from the mountain lions first.

The next thing we will hear is that the bighorns are commuting down to Bakersfield.

–B.G.–

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