moremuledeer

I would be interested to know if these bighorns were observed near the HWY 288 bridge that crosses the Salt River. Thanks.

Thanks to the hunters for bringing up this topic. Ranching is the bane of wildlife, especially in a dry state like Arizona. Allowing cows to graze in the Sonoran desert is archaic! Ask yourself these two questions the next time someone tells you ranching is necessary for benefiting wildlife. How did we have big game herds in the millions before European man showed up with cattle in North America? Also how did plants evolve so successfully before cattle showed up? Wildlife does not need cattle and plants do not need cattle to graze them to succeed. We do not need ranchers for water. Look at the millions of dollars hunters and the Game and Fish have spent on water developments for wildlife. Also look at the time and money spent on projects to exclude cattle from springs, meadows, and riparian areas because our land managers will not. We do not need ranchers for open space. Private land will eventually be developed unless there are conservation agreements preventing development. I am looking forward to the day without fences, gates, cattle guards, and cow pies at my campsites and in my drinking water at springs. The next time you experience over grazing by cattle take a digital photo and send it to the land management agency and explain to them that your public lands that you hunt are not to be used as a feedlot for cattle. Based on this post I think more and more hunters are not going to put up with overgrazing in our state and become more vocal to our land management agencies and politicians that we want more big game and fewer cattle on our public lands.