BLM won’t challenge judge’s grazing order

Federal land managers won’t fight a judge’s order to bar a rancher from grazing sheep on public land in western Idaho to protect the region’s wild bighorns.
In a filing Monday, the Bureau of Land Management agreed to live by U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill’s ruling last Wednesday that forbid rancher Mick Carlson from letting his sheep graze near Partridge Creek along the Salmon River.
Winmill’s order was only temporary and a hearing had been scheduled for Nov. 2.
The BLM now says it wants the court date canceled.
Winmill wrote that Carlson’s grazing could cause irreparable harm to bighorns, which wildlife managers say catch deadly diseases from their domesticated cousins.
Idaho’s bighorn population has dwindled by half since 1990 to 3,500 after mass die-offs.
In their filing, BLM managers wrote they would conduct a new environmental analysis before deciding on the future of the Partridge Creek grazing allotment. (AP)