BOISE, Idaho — A ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recognizing a connection between bighorn sheep deaths and diseases transmitted by domestic sheep could have far-reaching ramifications on federal grazing allotments in the West. The ruling earlier this month by the three-judge panel against domestic sheep producers upheld a lower court ruling in Idaho supporting a U.S. Forest Service decision to close sheep grazing allotments to protect bighorns.
The ruling gives the Forest Service legal backing to look at other areas in the West where domestic sheep grazing should be limited to protect bighorns, said Laurie Rule of Advocates for the West.
The Idaho Wool Growers Association and others sued in 2012, contending that the U.S. Forest Service illegally shut down 70 percent of sheep grazing in the Payette National Forest in west-central Idaho based on unproven disease transmission between domestic and bighorn sheep. But a U.S. district court — and now a federal appeals court— disagreed.
