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Secretary of Agriculture and Chief of the Forest Service Held in Contempt of Court for Use of Illegal Reports on Disease Transmission from Livestock to Bighorn Sheep
On February 23, 2016, Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho held the Secretary of Agriculture and Chief of the United States Forest Service (“Forest Service”) in contempt of court for relying on two illegal reports on disease transmission from livestock to bighorn sheep. The reports were used in the Shoshone National Forest’s recent Land Management Plan (LMP) revision to ban domestic sheep and goats from the Shoshone. The Shoshone National Forest covers nearly 2.5 million acres in northwest Wyoming....
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This is a HUGE win for us!!!
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I wonder if this will reverse current bans? I am sure an appeal is in the works.
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The reason they won is that I had just renewed my membership and it was *MY* dollars that tipped the scale. Thanks everyone! Thanks! I.. I want to... Please! Hold down the applause for a minute. Hehe. I wanted to thank all the little people! The ones who's dollars didn't actually tip the scale. I'm sure your money helped, kinda. But not as much as mine which actually tipped the scale! Thank you! Thank you very much! I'll be signing autographs for the next 45 minutes, only 5 dollars each!
Seriously though I didn't really expect this. Generally government protects government, so I was shocked that they actually got contempt. I guess some government workers are shocked as much as me. Like Nebs, I wonder about the implications and does this give us some momentum? Is there stuff to do right now that needs to be done RIGHT NOW? Do they need more $ to make this happen? I'll be looking forward to hearing what the plan is from here forward.
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You're awesome, Charlie Horse! They couldn'ta done it without ya! Not no way, not no how!
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02-26-2016, 07:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-26-2016, 07:45 PM by vigilguy.)
This is Charlie Jennings (NAPgA President), checking in -
Thanks to all of you who have contributed money and time to NAPgA. NAPgA exists to help YOU enjoy the wilderness and to keep the trails open.
What does the future hold? Well, I believe that the judge will be requiring the Forest Service to conference with NAPgA to work out a solution. Whether that be a settlement, a compromise, I don't know at this point. The Court knows that the Shoshone Forest Plan was put together with documents that were tainted, and they didn't look too kindly on that. I sincerely hope that we can work something out, such as them requiring a health certificate that requires MOVI tested negative packgoats, allowing us to have a right-of-way corridor through the Bighorn Sheep habitat, and pertaining to the Whiskey Mountain area of the Shoshone NF, perhaps require us to camp outside the critical area, which is possible up there. NAPgA cares about Bighorn Sheep, but an all-out BAN bothers me for a number of reasons so I do not believe that is the answer. Government officials seem to get carried away with the word BAN, like a blank check or something.
What can the general membership do at this time. Donate $$ and recruit members. There is strength in numbers. We always need to have a pile of cash in hand to defend our rights to the wilderness. We have the very finest Attorney in the nation when it comes to goats and bighorn sheep. The money allows us to have him help you and me put out fires across the country. National Forests all over want to close their boundaries to goats.
Lots of work to do, but it was really sweet to savor a victory this week. Lots of us spent an enormous amount of time on this, hoping and praying that we'd win this time around.
Happy packing!
Charlie Jennings
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THIS IS AWESOME.
*Saltlick* Rancho Topaz
near Topaz Lake, Nevada
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