The American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) continues to weigh legal options in response to the U.S. Forest Service agreeing at the end of June with the Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians to prohibit domestic sheep owned by the University of Idaho (UI) from grazing allotments on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in eastern Idaho.
The environmental groups filed a lawsuit in October that challenges the Forest Service’s authorization over the Snakey Canyon and Kelly Canyon grazing allotments on the southern end of the Beaverhead Mountains west of Dubois, ID, where 2,200 sheep primarily from the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station run by UI are permitted to graze.
They argue that the sheep pose a potentially deadly disease threat to a herd of about 36 South Beaverhead Rocky Mountain bighorns. A federal court in November issued a temporary injunction preventing the sheep from being released into the area until a scientific study is completed.
Now, the Forest Service has agreed to settle the lawsuit. Court documents say the suit will be dismissed unless the ASI, which intervened in the case, files an objection by July 27.
Chase Adams, ASI senior policy and information director, told the Western Livestock Journal that as a defendant intervenor in the lawsuit, ASI does have some recourse and continues to work with counsel to weigh options. It was not able to be at the table when the temporary injunction was issued, he said, adding it is disappointed with the Forest Service’s settlement with the environmental groups.
The “main sticking point,” Adams said, is $80,000 paid to them as compensation under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), which authorizes the payment of attorney fees to a prevailing party in an action against the United States absent a showing by the government that its position in the underlying litigation “was substantially justified.”
Radical environmental groups have exploited EAJA for many years by suing the federal government and “getting grossly compensated,” enabling them to more than recoup their legal costs and perpetuate lawsuits against sheep and cattle ranchers throughout the West, Adams said, calling that “a very clear abuse of equal access.”
He told WLJ: “When the industry jumps in, we have to pay our legal costs out of producer dollars. This really doubles cost to the industry. … When producers themselves and others are forced to intervene, that money is borne out of our own pocket. It’s really unfortunate.”
The U.S. Sheep Experiment Station near Dubois has been the target of several lawsuits over the years by environmental groups opposed to all range grazing, Adams said, calling it virtually the only research facility of its kind in the world conducting long-term experiments, studying the transmission of pathogens by domestic and wild animals, addressing very complicated, multifaceted issues. “This certainly sets a very bad precedence.”
The Forest Service has agreed to keep sheep from grazing on the disputed eastern Idaho allotments until a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) study is completed, which can take up to five years to complete, Adams said, adding the sheep industry would like to streamline the NEPA process.
The USDA under the Obama administration threatened to slash funding to the Sheep Experiment Station and eliminate it entirely, but Idaho’s congressional delegation led by Republican Rep. Mike Simpson resisted and successfully prevented that from happening, Adams noted. The Trump administration also initially proposed a budget that would close it but was persuaded otherwise.
“By attacking this facility, these radical environmentalists are really dealing a blow to our overall ability to understand and respond,” Adams said. “This is the industry’s research that suffers. The Sheep Experiment Station is a tremendous resource for a real-life western grazing scenario. Its research is applicable to other countries and areas, as well. That facility so uniquely positioned is now going to inherently suffer.”
Adams pointed out that among its many achievements for the entire sheep industry over its 102-year history has been developing three new breeds of sheep—the Columbia, the Polypay and the Targhee. Operating on about 75 square miles in Idaho, it also has been deeply engaged in nutrition and genetic research in addition to being an economic boon to a rural area, he said.
Dr. J. Bret Taylor, the sheep research station’s research leader and supervisory scientist, told WLJ he could not comment about the Forest Service settlement with the environmental groups because of his status as a federal employee. He has worked there for 17 years.
Jeff Siddoway, an Idaho legislator who is president of Siddoway Sheep Co. in Terreton, ID, said the Sheep Experiment Station is “absolutely important. It’s critical.” Its opponents want no grazing at all on Forest Service or U.S. Bureau of Land Management land, he said, but the station provides proven information about range conditions and best management practices vital to successful grazing operations.
It has done extensive genetics research pertaining to issues threatening the sheep industry, Siddoway said. “The market is always tough. What’s killing us now is interfacing with these wildlife species …” he said, citing wolves, bears, coyotes, cutthroat trout, salmon and sage-grouse as examples. “If the experiment station can get back on track and get proper funding to address those kinds of issues … they’ve pretty well earned their supper.”
Because long-term research can take five to 10 years, the station needs “a bunch of money … If we don’t get this experiment station going and address those concerns, it will put us out of business,” Siddoway said, saying environmental groups have “absolutely abused” EAJA and want to ban grazing in the “Yellowstone to Yukon” corridor, using bighorn sheep safety as a pretext.
Siddoway said 13,000 head of sheep in Montana and 6,000 head in Idaho are jeopardized as a result. He praised the Idaho congressional delegation’s support for the station’s continued viability, particularly Simpson who serves on the House Appropriations Committee. Last year the station—the only USDA Agricultural Research Service facility dedicated to the sheep industry—was threatened with closure for the third time since 2014.
In 2015, then USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told Congress the station’s proposed closure was due to a lack of financial and human resources at its remote location, plus costs associated with animal feed, infrastructure and staffing.
Full funding is needed to fill longstanding vacant positions at the station, supporters argue. It covers about 48,000 acres on the Idaho/Montana border and has about 3,000 mature sheep plus young sheep of various ages. In 2017, its budget totaled about $2.1 million, with a staff of 16 full-time federal and two UI employees. It also hires high school and undergraduate interns, plus graduate students.
Its stated mission is “… to develop integrated methods for increasing production efficiency of sheep and to simultaneously improve the sustainability of rangeland ecosystems.” — Mark Mendiola, WLJ correspondent
