BIGHORN SHEEP ENDANGERED IN LOCAL MOUNTAINS.

Byline: Keith Lair Staff Writer

LA CANADA - The San Gabriel Mountain Nelson Bighorn Sheep population could dwindle to near elimination, according to wildlife officials.

``We estimate there are between 56 and 124 sheep,'' said Dick Conti, the conservation director for the Society of Conservation of Bighorn Sheep. ``The population is probably still going to take a further hit.''

Conti, the Department of Fish and Game and Angeles National Forest Service officials all say there is little that can be done to save the population from further decimation.

This year, the L.A. County Fish and Game Commission and L.A. County Board of Supervisors sent a letter to the DFG, voicing concern for the sheep. Six years ago, the society estimates there were 700 sheep in the area. Last year, winds kept DFG and the society from completing its full count.

``The biggest problem is clearing out the old growth and chaparral,'' DFG game biologist Larry Sitton said.

The inherent problem, nearly all agree, is a combination of mountain lions and the Sheep Wilderness Area. Mountain lions, protected by California law, have overrun the area, officials say, eating sheep, deer and other game.

Sheep like the steep confines of the Sheep Mountain Wilderness Area, and they also like open areas for protection. But the Wilderness area is overgrown with brush. The lions wait for the sheep in the brush and pounce. In addition, the upper confines of the area - although they have less growth - do not have adequate foliage to feed the herd.

Because the area - on the western slopes of Mount Baldy and at the headwaters of the East Fork of the San Gabriel River - is a wilderness area, the U.S. Forest Service is prevented from doing controlled burns. The burns that the Forest Service can do - in areas outside the wilderness area - cost $175 an acre and take at least one year to set up.

``The solution is to get more habitat for the sheep,'' Sitton said, ``and try to not allow predators (to take them).''

``But there's not a lot we can burn,'' Angeles National Forest biologist Patti Krueger said.

The bighorn sheep problem in the San Gabriels is not confined to that area. Sheep are endangered in the Eastern Sierra and in the mountains above Palm Springs. In the Eastern Sierra, the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Foundation, Friends of Inyo, Wilderness Society, National Resources Defense Council and National Recreation and Conservation Association proposed legislation - which passed - that lions could be either killed or moved if they have been found to have attacked sheep.

The sheep are of the Sierra Nevada strain, which has fewer than 100 animals remaining. But the San Gabriel Mountains herd is a different strain, and that creates another problem, Conti noted.

``We don't have that option,'' he said. ``These sheep are part of the Nelson population and they're not endangered.''

Solutions?

``Maybe we are asleep at the switch on this,'' said Brad Crowe of Pasadena and the L.A. County Fish and Game Commission.

Other members of the Society of Bighorn Sheep - considered by many within the DFG as the standard-bearer for the animal - are unsure why the sheep have declined so rapidly and what can be done about it.

``Some will make it and some might not,'' Conti said.