Sheep grazing in Colorado NF scuttles elk hunt
 

I have received a report of massive sheep grazing in Colorado GMU 75 removing all available grazing and driving the elk out of normal places. These sheep typically graze on the national forest lands during summer months and are brought out before labor day. It appears that thousands of sheep must have been taken out slowly about 1-2 weeks before the first rifle season, eating the available grass down to the dirt. No elk. No shots.

My hope this is a "one-of" event and not the result of some change in national forest usage policy.

Can anyone comment on this? Have you heard of any sheep grazing problems in elk hunting areas?

I saw 2 elk all weekend, but heard many shots in the missionary ridge area. There is a lot of sheep and cattle grazing in the forests surrounding Durango. Another issue in the missionary ridge area is all of the dead fall caused by the missionary ridge fire 7 years ago. A lot of trees were coming down and have come down in the last year in the area.

Just a couple of guesses. The worst drought in decades probably limited what little available pasture there was, fires, deadfall, politics and money had something to do with it.