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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to begin shutting down a sheep research facility on the Idaho-Montana border that has operated for nearly a century if it doesn't hear objections from lawmakers by Friday.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on June 17 sent letters to two U.S. senators and two U.S. representatives on appropriations subcommittees telling them of his proposal to close the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station near Dubois in eastern Idaho.
The agency's Agricultural Research Service said it can move ahead with the closure following a waiting period.
"Congress has 30 days," Sandy Miller Hays, director of information staff for the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service, said Thursday. "We haven't heard back from Congress yet. If Congress doesn't respond at all, then we would go forth with the proposal."
In the letter to the lawmakers, Vilsack said declining and flat budgets mean there aren't enough scientists to conduct research at the sheep station that has been the target of lawsuits by conservation groups.
The groups contend that the sheep station is harming wildlife, including threatened grizzly bears, in the area that is considered a corridor between Yellowstone National Park and the mountainous wilds of central Idaho.
Environmentalist groups blame the station for the deaths of several grizzly bears in the area. They contend one bear was killed by someone protecting sheep.
"There's only one Yellowstone on planet Earth," said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. "We have this magnificent assemblage of wildlife in this ecosystem, and the sheep station is harming them."
Vilsack sent the letter to Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Arkansas, who is a subcommittee chairman on the Committee of Appropriations. Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, also received a copy.
In the House, Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Alabama, is the subcommittee chairman on the Committee of Appropriations. Rep. Sam Farr of California, the ranking Democrat, also received the letter.
Congress previously approved the current budget. Chairman and ranking members on appropriate subcommittees must approve changes to that budget, said Brian Rell, chief of staff for Aderholt.
That is in conflict with the idea of the 30-day deadline and that the Agriculture Department could go ahead with the closure without the four lawmakers agreeing. Rell said that some of the concepts lawmakers operate under are considered to be accepted practices rather than hard rules.
"The chairman is still looking into it," Rell said about Aderholt's possible decision. "He's asked for information. We're figuring out the best course of action, not only for right now but for long term."
Spokesmen for the other lawmakers didn't return messages from The Associated Press on Friday.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, late last month sent a letter to Aderholt asking that he prevent the sheep station from being closed. The lawmakers say the station conducts critical research needed by sheep growers.
"We have sheep growers all over eastern Oregon," said Andrew Malcolm, communications director for Walden. "They've told us how important the research at the station is to their industry."
The Agriculture Research Service runs the sheep station on about 48,000 acres. In addition, it grazes sheep on other public land in the two states.
If the sheep station closes, Vilsack proposes distributing research work to other facilities in seven states. Genetics research would be transferred to the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska.
Robinson, with the Center for Biological Diversity, said his group and others involved in the lawsuit are requesting that, if the sheep station closes, the Agriculture Research Service lands be added to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, which is in southwestern Montana.
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