The goal of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP), a massive data collection and collaborative effort among state and federal agencies, as well as other stakeholders in the California Desert, including Defenders, was to identify suitable sites for much-needed renewable-energy project development while at the same time ensuring that important wildlife, wilderness and recreational areas are managed appropriately according to state and federal law.ĭefenders has also partnered with numerous non-governmental organizations to review all application of the DRECP on a regular basis. We are also working to protect other public lands and wildlife corridors across the region that support bighorn sheep populations in a variety of planning processes that address livestock grazing, recreational vehicle use, new remote housing developments, highway modification/expansion and groundwater mining. Numerous individual mountain ranges no longer support bighorn populations and major Interstate highways have cut off once-connected mountain ranges. Fortunately, historic overhunting is no longer an issue due to successful state laws and regulations that allow for regulated hunting in a manner that sustains bighorn sheep populations.ĭefenders is urging the United States Air Force to back away from its heavy-handed attempt to usurp most of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada and to pursue a more collaborative approach that fairly balances wildlife conservation, cultural resource protection and military training on these public lands. Virtually all mountain ranges in the Southwest, as well as the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain Ranges, once supported large bighorn sheep populations – including most if not all mountain ranges forming what is referred to as a “meta-population” within the California Desert.Ĭompetition with domestic livestock for forage, loss of water sources from human diversion or livestock use, mining operations, vehicle collisions on highways, military bombing on training ranges and the spread of several diseases introduced by domestic livestock have devastated bighorn sheep populations throughout the West. Legendary for their ability to climb high, steep, rocky mountain areas, various bighorn subspecies and a distinct population (i.e., Peninsular) occur in the western United States. Bighorn sheep get their name from the large, curved horns on the males, or rams with female sheep sporting shorter, less curved horns.
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