Group sues to stop S.E. Valley sheep drive

An environmental group filed suit last week to stop a century-old sheep drive from going through Tonto National Forest on its way to the south East Valley. The drive, which moves about 4,000 sheep between San Tan Valley and Heber in the spring and back in the fall, could lead to the deaths of herds of bighorn sheep, according to the lawsuit, filed Thursday by The Western Watersheds Project. The organization has fought to keep domestic sheep away from the wild bighorn sheep in other states. The Sheep Springs Sheep Co., owned by Dwayne Dobson of Chandler, is the only company that has a permit to use the trail, known as a driveway and officially known as the Heber-Reno sheep driveway. The trail has existed since the 1890s and at the turn of the century it was designated a driveway by Presidential Executive Order, according to U.S. Forest documents. Every April, Dobson drives the herd 220 miles to pastures on the north side of the White Mountains near the New Mexico border to spend the summer in cooler temperatures foraging and mating. The flock, attended by dogs and herders with donkeys, begins its return trip to the East Valley in mid-August and travels about six miles a day. Such driveways were common throughout Arizona and at one time there were as many as 400,000 sheep herded along the Heber-Reno driveway...EastValleyTribune