<
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2023/12/13/washington-sheep-restoration-tribal>
"From our vantage point in a motorboat on the reservoir known as Franklin D.
Roosevelt Lake in eastern Washington, we scan the rocky canyon walls of the
Colville Confederated Tribes’ Hellgate game reserve for bighorn sheep. Before
it was a reservoir, manufactured by the United States government’s Grand Coulee
Dam, this was once a mighty, salmon-rich stretch of the Columbia River that
formed the basis of an entire ecosystem—and that supported the 12 tribes of the
Colville Confederated Tribes since time immemorial.
The boat belongs to Rose Piccinini, the Tribes’ Sanpoil district wildlife
biologist. She is part of a team that manages the herd of bighorn sheep that
the Tribes’ wildlife department reintroduced beginning in 2009. She also leads
the Tribes’ efforts to restore lynx populations back into the ecosystem here.
The animals who shared this landscape were once fully integrated into every
aspect of tribal members’ lives. They harvested bighorn sheep and other game
for food, tools, and clothing. Intricate myths, legends, and teachings about
the animals were passed down by elders to descendants and bound them to who
they were—and who, as a result, their descendants came to be.
But then American settlers brought domesticated European sheep and goats, and
with them, diseases that bighorns weren’t able to recover from. The succession
of disease exposures, against which bighorns had no defense, significantly
reduced their numbers and made them more vulnerable to other impacts they might
have otherwise withstood. Save for a few small pockets in secluded locations,
the bighorns died off, and the herds disappeared from the landscape and the
lives of the tribes."
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-we-are-reading-ancient-crops-caribbean-reforestation/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
