A Colorado federal judge reinforced a major conservation victory for bighorn sheep conservation on the Rio Grande National Forest. The court granted a motion to remand the decision to create the Wishbone Allotment back to the U.S. Forest Service, requiring thorough assessment before domestic sheep grazing can be authorized on the allotment. “Bighorn sheep are […]
The Trump administration has quietly rendered “inactive” a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) policy directive to prioritize environmental monitoring and analysis of livestock grazing on public lands in sensitive habitats. The rescinded policy—Instruction Memorandum 2025-004—directed BLM field offices to complete long overdue National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews on grazing allotments within areas critical to […]
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a major conservation victory for bighorn sheep conservation on the Rio Grande National Forest. The Court ruled the U.S. Forest Service unlawfully disregarded scientific findings and arbitrarily altered the findings of its disease “Risk of Contact” modeling when it approved domestic sheep grazing on the Rio Grande […]
Advocates for the West filed a settlement agreement in federal court requiring the Forest Service to address the threat that domestic sheep grazing poses to nearly half of the wild bighorn sheep in Washington state from disease outbreaks. The settlement resolves litigation filed in November 2020 by Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians over the agency’s failure to […]
Strong court decisions aren’t the only way we win for the West. In this special edition of Voices for the West, we take trip down memory lane to discuss the different ways we have achieved lasting protections for bighorn sheep over our 20-year history — from court decisions, to settlements, to using legal action to […]