JACKSON, Wyo. – Managers of the Bridger-Teton National Forest say they want to set travel routes for skiers and snowboarders through mountainous bighorn sheep winter range to protect the state's smallest and most isolated herd.
At just over 100 animals, the Targhee bighorn sheep population is all that remains of a herd that once roamed from the west side of the Teton Range to the valley bottoms of Jackson Hole. The Forest Service says human influences, including recreation, now pose the biggest threat to the stability of the herd.
A study in the 1990s showed that the Targhee herd winters on high, wind-swept terrain between Static Peak, in Grand Teton National Park, south to Rendezvous Peak. The U.S. Park Service already closes Static Peak and other areas in the park to skiing each winter to protect the sheep. Now forest managers are under pressure to take steps to protect winter sheep range.
Rather than close the entire area to skiers, forest officials say they want to hear from skiers about which popular access routes or trails could be left open while closing other areas for the sheep.
Skiers from the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort have been increasingly skiing into remote areas in recent years. The Forest Service says the change may have triggered a change in sheep movement and distribution patterns.
In 1999, the Bridger-Teton National Forest allowed the resort to open its gates and permit skiers into out-of-bounds terrain. Before that, the resort only opened its backcountry gates on days when the avalanche danger was deemed to be low.
The national forest has seen an explosion of backcountry use around the resort with the new open-gate policy. Lance Koch, forest biologist, says the change in recreation may have also triggered a change in sheep movement and distribution patterns.
The Forest Service wants skiers to report sheep sightings around Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Koch said that the more the Forest Service learns about sheep distribution, the better chance it has of continuing to allow skier access to the backcountry while protecting the animals.
"The less we know from the public, the more there's going to be restrictions because we didn't know," Koch said.
Some skiers have criticized the winter closures at Grand Teton National Park, noting that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department allows hunting of the herd.
Doug Brimeyer, biologist with the game and fish department, defended the hunting policy. He said the department issued four permits for the area this year but said hunters didn't kill any bighorns.
In the fall, when hunting occurs, sheep are free to travel to lower elevations, Brimeyer said. In winter, he said sheep are restricted to marginal, high-elevation terrain and cordoned in by snow. He said that makes skiers much more likely than hunters to come into close contact with the bighorns.
TARGHEE sheep are an American produced breed. They were developed by the Duboise, Idaho Research Station, beginning in 1926. Their name comes from the Targhee National Forest, as they were developed under range conditions, with rigid standards based on range performance. Their original breeding stock came from breeding Rambouillet rams to ewes of Corriedale x Lincoln-Rambouillet bloodlines.