CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Two bills that sponsors say would protect Wyoming’s domestic sheep industry against possible federal land grazing reductions are advancing in the state Legislature.
The Wyoming House of Representatives voted Thursday to give preliminary approval to a bill that would codify in state law a plan that state agencies have used for the past 10 years to resolve possible conflicts between wild and domestic sheep.
The House also gave preliminary approval to another bill that would endorse removal of a herd of bighorns from an area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest if the federal government proposes to cut domestic sheep operations there. Both bills already have passed in the Wyoming Senate.
The bills are in response to concern the U.S. Forest Service is considering whether to curtail domestic sheep in Wyoming and other western states to reduce the threat to wild bighorns.
The U.S. Forest Service recently curtailed domestic sheep grazing on the Payette National Forest in Idaho to protect bighorn sheep from disease. Domestic sheep producers from Idaho and elsewhere are fighting the agency’s decision on the Payette National Forest in federal court.
State management agencies, hunting groups and grazing interests worked together to devise the existing Wyoming plan in 2004. It ranks sheep areas in the state according to their value, placing the greatest restrictions on domestic sheep in the prime bighorn areas.
Proponents of the pending Wyoming legislation say that recognizing the plan in state law will put the state on firmer legal ground if it has to fight any federal effort to evict domestic sheep producers.
“What this does is put in statute a plan that’s been worked on for a long period of time by everybody involved in the bighorn sheep issue,” Rep. Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, said Thursday.
The House also voted to advance a bill that calls for removing a herd of bighorns from the Darby Mountain area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest if the federal government proposes to cut domestic sheep operations there.
Rep. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, said there are 13 bighorns in the area compared to 82,000 domestic sheep.
Rep. Jerry Paxton, R-Encampment, noted the Legislature enacted similar legislation a few years ago in response to the prospect that federal land managers might try to curtail longstanding domestic sheep operations in the area in response to a small herd of bighorns.
“This bill wouldn’t be necessary if it wasn’t for the overreach of the federal government,” Paxton said.
Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, said he disagreed with the state’s approach. “As a policy matter, I don’t feel it’s right to keep doing this,” he said.
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