Pack Goat Closure extending to Oregon

[Saph]

Taffy, I hope you plan on commenting, & citing that article...we as a community need to stress in our comments that the concern for bighorn sheep co-mingling with pack goats can be mitigated by doing numerous actions, including:

• Highlining
  
• Keeping goats on a lead at all times
  
• GPS tracking collars in case goats do get lost
  
• requiring a veterinary certificate of health
  
• requiring a registration/permit system, and limiting the number of goats per party
  

These are just a few of the mitigation measures that need to be included and ANALYZED in all the alternatives. In addition, we need to offer to monitor the interactions between pack goats and bighorn sheep, document if we sight any sheep & if so, how close the sheep come to our goats.

Whether we agree with the research or not, we need to show that we are trying to reduce the PROBABILITY of ANY potential transmission between pack goats & wild sheep. We need to show that pack goats are NOT the same as free-ranging sheep & goats & should be analyzed separately, with the assumption that mitigation measures are in place & will be followed & monitored. If we can show this, then we can also show that risk of transmission will be extremely low.

Finally, we need to COLLABORATE (huge government buzzword) with the Forest Service in coming up with effective mitigation measures. If they ignore our requests to collaborate, they are in violation of policy.

I hope that everyone reading this responds to this issue. This is going to be an expensive battle to fight in court & I am fearful of the outcome. Let's see what we can do to avoid that--Saph