WAFNAWS Bighorn Days

[popeshawnpaul]

This past weekend was the WA-FNAWS annual Bighorn Days gathering.  This was my first time attending the event and it proved to be a fun, affordable, and educational experience.  The event spanned 3 days starting on Friday with a morning trip to talk with representatives from the game department on the current status of sheep herds.  The group then travelled to Washington State University to meet with Dr. Sri and to tour the research facility at WSU.  While I was not able to attend this portion of the event I heard it was very informative from all those who attended.  The bighorn research being done at WSU is the best around and we are hoping they will find a solution to the problems our bighorns face.

Rocky mountain bighorn populations are distributed throughout the tri-state Hells Canyon area.  This area covers thousands of square miles of bighorn habitat from our Blue Mountains to Hells Canyon in Oregon and the Idaho Salmon River system.  Most biologists agree this is the best bighorn habitat in the United States and that historically up to 10,000 bighorns roamed this region.  Currently, it is thought that the bighorns in this area number less than 1,000.  To put this into perspective for hunters, it would mean hundreds of sheep hunting tags throughout this region if the population were to return to historical levels.  Washington and Idaho currently offer approximately 2 tags each per year for this region…

What we learned from the biologists that attended this event from each state game agency is that there were many more bighorns in this region just a decade or so ago.  A large die-off occurred throughout the region in 1996 due to contact with domestic sheep/goat.  The problem is that these sheep will contact a domestic sheep/goat, contract a disease, and return to the herd spreading the disease.  This diseased sub-herd contacts another and it spreads throughout the region.  Despite the promising research being done at WSU, the only way to stop these die-offs is to prevent contact between domestic sheep/goats and bighorns.

After a full day on Friday, the group met that evening at the house of WA-FNAWS president, Glen Landrus, for a full chicken dinner and social.  Here you could rub elbows with famous sheep guides like Craig Martin and other members of FNAWS from chapters in Idaho, WA, Oregon, Wyoming, and Texas.  It is rare when I’m in company that likes sheep as much as I do so I found myself doing a lot more listening than speaking while taking in the experience.
Saturday found us at the boat ramp near the confluence of the Grand Ronde and the Snake River.  Five jet boats took us up into Hell’s Canyon on the Snake and Salmon Rivers looking for sheep.  Sadly, we did not spot many sheep due to the low population densities.  Even sadder was the fact that most ewes didn’t have a lamb.  Out of approximately 30 ewes spotted on Saturday only about 4-5 lambs were seen.  At that rate of reproduction the population will not recover.

After the jet boat ride we all met at Joseph Creek wildlife area.  There we all camped overlooking the Grand Ronde River while spotting wildlife such as elk, bear, deer, and turkey.  A large steak dinner and small auction rounded out the evening.  Many items such as a spotting scope were sold with the proceeds going to a tri-state fund to help bighorn sheep. 

Morning came early on Sunday and a large breakfast was served before Oregon biologist Vic Coggins gave a talk about bighorns and the current status within the region.  One of the important issues discussed was the issue with lamb survival.  Mr. Coggins explained that they have narrowed that down to microplasm, a bacterium that infects a lamb from the inside out.  In some cases he detailed how these baby lambs get inner ear infections and die a painful death with lambs having maggots come out of the infected ear.  It’s a gruesome reality to the problems we are facing with bighorns.

Currently there is a battle in our states by the livestock owners over grazing rights and contact with bighorn.  At this point the science is solid and point toward domestic contact as the reason we are seeing declines in our bighorn populations and die-offs in the newborn lambs.  Getting involved with an organization such as WA-FNAWS is important.  Going to an event like Bighorn Days shows you first hand where your money is going and what needs to be done to save our bighorns.  You can bet I’ll be at the event next year.

[EastWaViking]

cool event, thanks for the info and pics!

[Skinner]

Sounds like you had a good time.  Probably was real fun for you being around people who know so much about the animals.  Great pics too.

[huntnphool]

Nice writeup Shawn, wish I could have attended. How was that boat ride?

[popeshawnpaul]

The boat ride was great.  To be honest, it's a real affordable weekend with the boat ride, 2 dinners, and all the fun.  $75 went a long ways...

[huntnphool]

Wow, thats pretty cheap

[Slider]

Very nice!!! Thanks for the post!!! We need to get involved and save our Sheep. Write your State Senators and voice your opinion!!! We need to keep these Domestic Sheep out of our Bighorn Habitat!!!

[jackelope]

well shoot. i had the opportunity to be in that neighborhood this weekend and stayed home. if i knew that was going on, i may have changed my mind. looks like a cool couple days.

[ramslam]

Thanks Pope for the write up.  It was nice to have you and Slider down here to hang out for the weekend.  Definitely a lot of behind the scenes work going on with our bighorn populations.

[chukarchaser]

What a great article and weekend.  WOW I wish I would have know about it in advance me and the kids would have really enjoyed it. 

[ramslam]

Watch for future "Tri-State FNAWS Bighorn Days" promos in our winter WAFNAWS newsletters.

[RPM]

great writeup

[Pathfinder101]

Nice write up Pope.  I have noticed the herd in the Tucannon drainage having extremely low lamb recruitment.  You will see a herd of 7 or 8 ewes and only one or two lambs.  I guess the microplasm infection makes sense.  I didn't think that predators would be wreaking that much havoc in such a short time (by late spring).  Is the microplasm infection also spread my domestics?

[popeshawnpaul]

Yes, domestics spread the microplasm.  It doesn't seem to affect the domestic sheep though...   

[Pathfinder101]

Yes, domestics spread the microplasm.  It doesn't seem to affect the domestic sheep though...   

So the domestic sheep are giving the wild sheep blankets with smallpox...