LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — Three environmental groups are challenging a decision by the Payette National Forest to stop implementing new grazing restrictions designed to protect bighorn sheep in north-central Idaho.
The lawsuit filed this week takes aim at a rider attached to a 2012 congressional spending bill that forbids federal agencies from spending money on carrying out a policy that ultimately limits grazing of domestic sheep.
The case comes amid new reports that at least one bighorn sheep herd is struggling against a pneumonia outbreak.
Washington state biologists told the Lewiston Tribune (http://bit.ly/HpCa6n ) that a herd in the Hells Canyon region has lost more than 30 percent of its population in recent months.
