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.—
