Yakima Canyon Sheep

[norsepeak]

I'm interested, sent you a pm

[Cougeyes]

It's well worth it, I volunteered a couple weeks ago and had a great day spending time out hiking and spotting sheep and helping out where I could.  They run a good operation and the people are top notch, really friendly and make you feel welcomed and answer any questions you may have. 

[bearpaw]

Any word on the percentage of healthy sheep yet?

[norsepeak]

went yesterday, saw a lot of sheep and some nice rams.  Things seem to be going well, they told me they are about to wrap this up and they've killed 38 sheep including 2 rams...so that's all I know.

[wa.hunter]

to those of you that volunteered and helped THANKS. The project has currently been wrapped up, with plans to do some observing to see how the lambs end up doing the next few weeks. As the 1st lamb that was seen was born last Monday.. My personal estimate is that there is still around 120-130 sheep in the Umtanum unit with approximately 40+ of those being Rams. In other words we lost to date I bet 50% of the herd.. Much better than some of the other states whom did nothing and have lost over 80% of some of their herds and still dying. This was one of the most intensely done project of it kind to date hopefully some knowledge will come of it all that will benefit sheep in the future. There are still some very nice rams in the unit and currently the plan is to continue with the same # of tags this year in both the Selah and Umtanum units.. sheep were test in the Selah unit and they had remain 100% disease free to date. Let hope it remains that way..For once you guys can thank WDFW for sticking with a plan and Widlife Service for supplying a very professional crew.

[ramslam]

Thank you wa.hunter for your serious dedication and committment to this project!

[WonkyWapiti]

I'm glad I got ahold of you on the phone this morning before making it over the pass.  The snow was dumping and now the pass is closed so we woulda been stuck. 

[boneaddict]

Much better outcome than I expected.   COOL!

[Elkstuffer]

Yea, that is great news considering how it could have turned out. I just heard this morning that they are done with the shooting portion. Also good news. It was nice that groups like SCI, FNWS, WDFW and the feds could all work together on suck a big and controversial issue such as this. Thanks.

[KNOPHISH]

I would guess that more sheep would have died if not for the project, Good job.

[carpsniperg2]

yeah great update thanks maybe i will still put in for those units this year for my sheep tag i will draw this year  joke

[yelp]

My good friend is one of the APHIS Wildlife Services shooters..I had him give me this pic..I thought it was really cool.  He didn't shoot any of these rams but it is a cool pic.  He spent the night and he is headed back home. Here is the pic.  

[wa.hunter]

took a cruise through the canyon yesterday and saw around 60 sheep of those 17 were rams and 7 were new baby lambs. They were having a ball running all over the place. Lots of ewe's still appear pregnant so maybe more to come. Weather was off and on rain so maybe a couple of lambs were hiding too. let hope and pray they are still there next month. If any of you are cruising through there would be nice to let us know what you see.

[jackelope]

good to hear there's still a good number of sheep around.

[WonkyWapiti]

Very good news, thanks for the update.