TRCP Participates In California Bighorn Sheep Relocation Program In Oregon
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership recently participated in a relocation of California bighorn sheep along the border of California and Oregon. Here’s a sample from the TRCP representatives who experienced it:
In the Lower Deschutes, some 900 California bighorns call the canyon home—a remarkable conservation success story, embodying resilience and the power of collaborative wildlife management. Once widespread across the state, bighorn sheep populations were driven to near extinction in the 19th and early 20th centuries due to habitat loss, overhunting, and diseases introduced by domestic sheep. By the early 1900s, bighorn sheep had vanished entirely from Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada. In the 1950s, efforts to reintroduce the species began, with state agencies and partners working tirelessly to restore these iconic animals to their native range. Transplants from neighboring states and Canada re-established herds, and through ongoing management, Oregon’s bighorn numbers are now strong enough to pay it forward.
Numerous sporting organizations whose missions revolve around bighorn sheep have risen to the challenge across the western United States and Canada to help bolster wild sheep conservation. National organizations like the Wild Sheep Foundation and many state-based groups like the Oregon Wild Sheep Foundation and Nevada Bighorns Unlimited hold fundraising events every year and contribute millions of dollars to wildlife agencies which have expanded their bighorn efforts. Many of these groups also provide much-needed volunteer labor for projects such as sheep relocations. In many cases those dollars and volunteer hours can be matched with federal funding through the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937. Without these groups, projects like this would be nearly impossible to carry out.
The helicopter roared up the canyon while the crew scanned rimrock bands for the unmistakable white rumps of bighorns. When groups were spotted, the pilots charged the sheep over steep terrain and the obvious pop from the net gun signaled a success. Not long thereafter, a daisy chain of blindfolded ewes descended from the sky where they were met with stretchers and gloved hands.
