Utah wants to put bighorn sheep in more southern Utah mountains, but woolgrowers fear they'll be the

Utah wants to put bighorn sheep in more southern Utah mountains, but woolgrowers fear they’ll be the losers


Utah wildlife officials are eager to restore bighorn sheep, the West’s most coveted big game species for sport hunting, to native ranges that are not used by domestic sheep.

But a proposal to relocate wild sheep into Beaver County’s Mineral Mountains has woolgrowers on high alert with concerns that such projects could displace their operations.

The fear isn’t about competition for forage but rather about disease transmission and how a bighorn die-off could be used to push sheep ranchers off their grazing allotments.

“There are a lot of unknowns out there, and the [domestic] sheep are getting blamed for [other] die-offs,” said grower Matt Mickel, who has sheep about 10 miles west of the Mineral range. ”I don’t see any advantage to putting [bighorns] there. I don’t see a scenario I would be comfortable with.”

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2018/05/31/utah-wants-to-put-bighorn-sheep-in-more-southern-utah-mountains-but-woolgrowers-fear-theyll-be-the-losers/