Skaha bluffs destruction

Dear Editor: There was a time when there were more bighorn sheep in the Okanagan than there were humans.

Early in history humans routinely abused sheep populations through direct kill and selfserving, uncaring invasion and occupation of their habitat.

Now, sheep populations and their range are dramatically shrunken, increasingly fractured, and still livestock co-opt ranges and bring disease, native poaching and questionable hunting pressure picks away at populations, and intensive recreation is an escalating threat.

The sheep population occupying the lands from Penticton to near Vaseaux counts fewer than 70 animals that somehow hang on; humans now outnumber bighorns in the Skaha-Penticton Creek area over 500-to-one. Even the permissive B.C. government considers sheep here “at risk”.

We can’t undo most of this damage (some, yes), but the selfish thinking and actions we’re seeing from city managers as justification for “bringing the Skaha bluffs into the city” is an absurd land grab amounting to gross arrogance – and negligence – and will only accelerate and aggravate this precarious wildlife conservation situation.

Not withstanding the severe ecological impacts of this land grab and development, there are ominous

Letters can be mailed to the Herald, c/o Joe Fries, dropped off at the office, faxed to the editor at 250-492-2403 or e-mailed to: letters@pentictonherald.ca.