Groups file bighorn lawsuit

Three environmental groups are challenging the Payette National Forest contention that a 2011 Congressional rider prevents further implementation of grazing restrictions designed to protect bighorn sheep. The rider championed by Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, forbids the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management from spending money implementing domestic sheep grazing reductions beyond those in place on July 1 of 2011. Because of the rider Payette Forest officials announced they will not implement grazing reductions that were set to take effect this summer. A 2010 plan commonly referred to as the Payette Decision called for domestic sheep grazing to be cut by about 70 percent over a three-year period starting in 2011. The plan is designed to protect bighorn sheep from a disease carried by domestic sheep. Craig Gehrke of the Wilderness Society at Boise contends the rider language does not forbid the agency from implementing the grazing restrictions because they were announced in 2010, prior to the July 1, 2011 deadline. He says the reductions were further solidified when the agency and ranchers agreed to grazing permit terms in February of 2011, also prior to the deadline...more