Bonnie Brown-Eddy
Fort Collins Coloradoan
Bighorn sheep are the trojan horse of the anti-grazing activists
In response to Joe Lewandowsky’s opinion piece, “Wild Bighorns in peril in Colorado, Rocky Mountain West,” I would like to share some facts ignored in the emotional rhetoric and scare tactics employed by anti-grazing activists.
Lewandowski gives the impression that any contact with domestic sheep is always fatal. This misconception has its roots in “pen” studies that forced wild bighorn sheep to commingle with domestic sheep, with resulting high mortality rates for bighorns. The inherent problem with this is that forced contact between the two species is not indicative of open range grazing.
While Lewandowski concocts “the few ‘woolgrowers’ in Colorado hold inordinate political power because their agricultural status is somehow sacrosanct,” I would offer that the wool growers have been able to refute much of the hysteria and manipulation of data regarding bighorns and domestics; federal lands are still multiple use; and Americans still cherish domestic food and fiber production as well as wildlife and habitat.
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Bonnie Brown-Eddy is the executive director of the Colorado Wool Growers Association.
