US drops appeal of ruling banning some sheep grazing

By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — U.S. officials and a sheep industry group have dropped their appeals of a court ruling preventing sheep grazing in western Montana and eastern Idaho by a sheep research facility. The facility has been long targeted by environmental groups concerned about potential harm to grizzly bears and other wildlife. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month granted a request by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station and Colorado-based American Sheep Industry Association to drop the appeals filed earlier this year. They had sought to overturn a lower court ruling that the government hadn’t adequately examined all of the impacts with allowing the grazing.