“Wild Sheep and Wild Fire”

“Wild Sheep and Wild Fire”. . , Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep once roamed much of the western United States. Now, these magnificent animals are found in only a fraction of their historic range. Human expansion, disease, market hunting and fire suppression all contributed to the decline of bighorn sheep populations and their habitat. Fortunately, management actions taken by state and federal agencies, tribal governments, and wildlife conservation groups have restored wild sheep to many of their former ranges., The Absaroka Mountains in northwest Wyoming, including Wind River Canyon, support nearly 80 percent of the bighorn sheep in Wyoming. During most of the 20th century, however, Wind River Canyon supported relatively few bighorn sheep. In 1995, 43 bighorn sheep from Whiskey Basin near Dubois were released into Wind River Canyon on the Wind River Reservation to repopulate this historic range. Bighorn sheep now can be seen on the rocky cliffs, the bunchgrass-covered slopes, and along the river’s edge throughout the Wind River Canyon., Bighorn sheep prefer and depend on open, rough country with high-visibility to detect and avoid predators. Fire, whether naturally occurring or ignited by managers under very specific environmental conditions, plays a major role in maintaining and enhancing habitats throughout wild sheep range. Periodic fires prevent an overabundance of shrubs and trees from establishing on wild sheep ranges, thus providing bighorn sheep open high quality habitats, and enhancing their ability to detect and escape predators. Evidence of several beneficial fires can be seen along the rugged slopes of Wind River Canyon. Hopefully, these fires, together with the 1995 transplant of 43 bighorn sheep and subsequent management, will ensure a herd of bighorn sheep in Wind River Canyon well into the future.