History of Conservation Management

Protection for Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep began in the 1876. Decimation of native game species led the California Legislature to enact legal protections and in 1878 the prohibition of taking any mountain sheep was first established.
In 1940 the National Park Service and Sierra Club jointly proposed the creation of a sanctuary on the Inyo National Forest for the Mount Baxter population of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep. Although it was rejected at the time, in 1971 the U.S. Forest Service established two Bighorn Sheep Zoological Areas for surviving populations and the National Park Service similarly imposed restrictions on the adjacent habitat with its jurisdiction.

In 1972, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep were listed as “rare” and two years later listing was upgraded to “threatened” status. This listing called for actions to improve population status, including field research and reintroductions. Intensive research beginning in 1975 found that the remaining populations of Sierra Nevada bighorn totaled 250 bighorn, with about 220 living in what was then known as the Mount Baxter herd, but soon recognized to be two contiguous populations. The large size and productivity of this population allowed the creation of a successful interagency program to reestablish the Sierra Nevada bighorn in historic ranges and increase their numbers.

 Between 1979 and 1988, 93 bighorn from the Mount Baxter herd were caught and moved to three locations in the southern and central Sierra Nevada: Wheeler Ridge, northwest of Bishop, Mount Langley, southwest of Lone Pine, and Lee Vining Canyon, east of Yosemite National Park. Initially the newly established populations grew. However, simultaneous with the establishment of new populations was a period of rapid increase in winter mountain lion predation on bighorn sheep in the Sierra Nevada. The restoration program was forced into suspension when bighorn sheep populations began avoiding low elevation winter ranges where they could be counted and caught, but also where they were preyed on by mountain lions.  Subsequent bighorn population declines have largely kept that restoration in suspension now for more than two decades
By 1995 only just over 100 bighorn sheep remained scattered across five isolated locations in the Sierra.

In 1999, the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation along with additional organizations helped bring the plight of these sheep to the attention of key individuals within government agencies. As a result, an extraordinary series of events unfolded. In the spring of 1999 the California Fish and Game Commission upgraded these sheep to a California endangered species in response to a petition filed by the Foundation. A month later the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service classified these sheep as a federal endangered species on an emergency basis following another petition filed by five organizations, including the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation. At the time, only 26 species had been listed on an emergency basis in 26 years. Following that emergency listing, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bestowed full endangered species status to these sheep in January 2000.