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Board backs predation plan amendments and multi‑site bighorn relocation plans
Summary
The Elko CAB approved a FY2025 predation management amendment and supported the Department's FY2026 predation plan; the board also supported a proposed multi‑site desert bighorn relocation that would move roughly 150 sheep to Tobin, Cortez and Utah release sites, subject to landowner and agency approvals.
The Elko County Advisory Board voted to support an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2025 predation management plan and to back the Department of Wildlife's draft Fiscal Year 2026 predation management plan. The board also supported a proposal to relocate bighorn sheep into multiple sites, contingent on cooperative agreements and disease testing.
NDOW staff described the FY2025 amendment as moving $72,500 from projects 38 and 43 to project 37 and moving $10,000 from project 43 to project 47, using donated funds to cover deficits. The board approved the amendment by motion and voice vote.
On the FY2026 draft predation management plan, department staff said the plan is reviewed at multiple advisory meetings each year and recommended CAB support; the board approved the FY2026 draft plan.
The board also discussed a proposed desert bighorn relocation prompted by catastrophic conditions in the Muddies (Area 2268). Scott Roberts (NDOW) said disease sampling and cooperative agreements with landowners and domestic sheep operators had been secured for many release sites. Department staff described an anticipated move of roughly 150 sheep distributed among proposed release areas: about 60 to Cortez, 40 to the Tobins and approximately 50 to Utah (numbers contingent on capture and approvals); a separate Clan Alpine relocation (20–40 sheep) was under consideration.
NDOW said the program would be supplemented with NGO funds and predation‑management pretreatment at release sites; staff noted June as a likely capture window pending Bureau of Land Management concurrence. The CAB voted to support the biannual big game release plan amendment that formalizes the relocation schedule and preparatory work.
The board emphasized the need for cooperative landowner agreements and disease testing. Scott Roberts noted the department had run disease sampling on yearlings to detect active pathogens and had identified which herds were available for translocation.
