News for Immediate Release
May 1, 2018
Contact: Katie McKalip, 406-240-9262, mckalip@backcountryhunters.org

 

BHA commends proposal to withdraw important winter range from minerals development

 

WASHINGTON – Public lands sportsmen welcomed an announcement by the Department of the Interior today that will support Western big game populations and habitat.

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers commended the Interior proposal, which would renew for 20 years a minerals withdrawal on public lands in Wyoming that are relied upon by bighorn sheep. Located southeast of Dubois, the Whiskey Mountain Bighorn Sheep Winter Range provides winter range for one of the largest herds of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in North America.

“How can protecting important wildlife habitat ever be the wrong thing to do?” said BHA Wyoming chapter co-chair Buzz Hettick. “Supporting big game populations from the cradle to the grave – this should be one of our goals in natural resources management. Seasonal habitat like winter range is critical to ability of species like bighorn sheep to survive and flourish, and this is exactly the type of habitat that Whiskey Mountain provides.”

“We commend the administration for doing the right thing for the habitat and the wild sheep that depend on it,” said BHA President and CEO Land Tawney. “We expect this decision to spur more of the same foresighted actions.”

In February BHA applauded an order by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke that focuses on protecting big game migration corridors and winter range.  

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for our wild public lands, waters and wildlife.

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