State helping to re-establish native species.Byline: The Register-Guard Shipping Alaskan moose to Oregon didn't work out too well in the 1920s, but the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is an agency of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for programs protecting Oregon fish and wildlife resources and their habitats. has had good results transplanting other big game animals - especially species native to the state. Roosevelt elk, nearly wiped out by "market hunters" in the late 1800s, were restocked in Oregon with the help of a couple of batches of elk captured in Wyoming and shipped to Western Oregon. And bighorn sheep Bighorn sheep a tall (up to 3 ft), heavy (up to 300 lb body weight) wild sheep that lives in inaccessible mountain country where it exercises its principal achievement of prodigious leaping and climbing. Called also Ovis canadensis. Several regional varieties, e.g. O. c. - which disappeared from Oregon in the 1940s as a result of diseases picked up from domestic sheep - were successfully reintroduced using transplanted animals. In fact, Oregon's sheep are doing so well, the state is now an exporter of bighorn Bighorn, river, United States Bighorn, river, 461 mi (741 km) long, formed in W central Wyo. by the confluence of the Wind and Pop Agie rivers and flowing north to join the Yellowstone River in S Mont. . Of 115 California bighorn sheep captured under the supervision of state wildlife biologists working five different ranges in December, 50 were shipped to Idaho, Wyoming and North Dakota as part of a joint effort to return sheep to their native habitat. It was the greatest export of bighorns since Oregon began trying to re-establish California bighorns in 1954. Of the other captured sheep, 20 were relocated to the Kiger Gorge on Steens Mountain, 19 were moved to the Red Wall area on the John Day River, and 15 were moved to Eagle Creek on the Warm Springs Reservation. Wildlife officials estimate Oregon currently has a population of about 3,700 California bighorns, plus about 800 of the larger Rocky Mountain subspecies subspecies, also called race, a genetically distinct geographical subunit of a species. See also classification. of bighorn sheep. The latter is still bolstered occasionally by transplants of fresh breeding stock from Canada. Meanwhile, Oregon's fledgling effort to re-establish the Rocky Mountain goat Rocky Mountain goat, hoofed ruminant mammal, Oreamnos americanus, found in the high mountains of S Alaska, W Canada, and the extreme NW United States. in Oregon is gaining steam. Just last week, the ODFW ODFW Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife proposed reintroducing Rocky Mountain goats to the Columbia River Gorge in hopes of sustaining a population there for the first time in nearly 200 years. The Lewis and Clark Expedition Lewis and Clark expedition, 1803–6, U.S. expedition that explored the territory of the Louisiana Purchase and the country beyond as far as the Pacific Ocean. first reported the presence of mountain goats in journals during its return trip back up the Columbia River. While camped near the present-day Bonneville Dam, Meriwether Lewis wrote about the abundant goats found by tribal people among the cliffs on the Oregon side of the river. The ODFW proposes to trap 15 to 20 Rocky Mountain goats from a population that has been established in the Elkhorn Mountains, then release them in the Herman Creek Basin near Cascade Locks. Public meetings are scheduled later this month in The Dalles dalles pl.n. The rapids of a river that runs between the steep precipices of a gorge or narrow valley. [French, pl. of dalle, gutter, from Old French, from Old Norse dæla.] and Sandy to discuss the reintroduction proposal and gain public input. The reintroduction plan must be approved by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission before the transplant can occur. |
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