‘Shepherds of Today’ sheds light on conservation effort
Issues included overgrazing and using grazing as fire mitigation
Some 50 people, including audience members, presenters and exhibitors, gathered at Bishop City Park late Saturday afternoon to listen to a panel of speakers who work or have worked in the sheepherding industry.
The event, called “Shepherds of Today,” was hosted by local conservation nonprofit Friends of the Inyo as part of Latino Conservation Week, which aims to instill a greater interest in the outdoors as well as a greater engagement in environmental protection among Hispanics, only about 12% of whom engage in outdoor recreation activities, according to a 2020 Outdoor Industry Association report.
Because the sheepherding industry in California and the U.S. has traditionally relied on imported labor from Spain, including the Spanish Basque Country, and South American countries like Peru and Chile, Friends of the Inyo believed hearing about sheepherders’ adventures from fellow Hispanics could instill a greater appreciation for nature among local Latinos, which make up about 25% of Inyo and Mono County residents.
Panelists included locals Helver Flores, a former sheepherder born in Peru, who now owns a landscaping business, and ranchers Ron Yribarren, of Basque descent, and husband and wife, Matt and Maria Kemp. Bishop Police Chief Richard
Standridge, who also raises a small flock of sheep together with his wife in the San Joaquin Valley area, gave a greeting, as did City Councilman Jose Garcia.
Issues discussed included the prevention of overgrazing, grazing as a form of wildfire abatement, control of the spread of disease among sheep and from sheep to animals in the wild, relations with federal agencies that manage public lands where grazing happens, and some of the dangers faced by sheepherders, including the handling of aggressive rams, encounters with mountain lions and even a brush with this year’s Airport Fire in February.
A theme that kept coming up in the discussion was water scarcity due to Los Angeles’ extraction of water from the Eastern Sierra, and how the landscape has changed over the years due to altered weather patterns caused by less water and global warming. A much drier
Eastern Sierra is seeing less rain, a decreased snowpack, and every year appears to be less conducive to sheepherding, a local industry that is dying out, the panelists agreed.
Following the discussion, attendees talked with panelists one on one, and visited exhibitor booths that included, AltaOne Federal Credit Union, Keep Long Valley Green Coalition, Inyo County Health & Human Services, Sierra Shanti Studio and Friends of the Inyo. Attendees also had a chance to pet a ewe and her lamb brought by the Kemps.