Outdoor Notes : Bighorn Sheep Will Be Relocated

Nelson bighorn sheep from a herd near Old Dad Peak in San Bernardino County will soon be cavorting in a traditional bighorn habitat about 180 miles northwest of their current territory if wildlife biologists from the state Dept. of Fish and Game are successful.

A crew of DFG personnel and volunteers from the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep will meet Sept. 7 to try to capture as many as 30 Old Dad bighorns--24 ewes and 6 rams--for relocation in the Argus Mountains of Inyo County. The project is part of a plan to expand the Mojave Desert mountain sheep population.

A helicopter will be used to herd the sheep into nets. They will be hobbled, blindfolded and taken by helicopter to a nearby base camp for inspection by DFG veterinarians. The sheep then will be injected with antibiotics and vitamins, tagged for future identification and loaded aboard a specially designed four-wheel drive truck for the five-hour trip.

Vern Bleich, biologist and project leader, said that the project would reduce the population density at Old Dad and re-establish the herd on a historical bighorn range.

California waterfowl hunters will have 1986 seasons similar to last year’s, according to regulations adopted by the state Fish and Game Commission last week.

In Southern California, there will be a 79-day split season for ducks, and seasons ranging from 79 to 93 days for most geese. Bag and possession limits remain unchanged from 1985.

The duck seasons in Southern California will be Oct. 18-Nov. 30 and Dec. 8-Jan. 11. The goose season will be Oct. 18-Jan. 18, with some exceptions.

Protests primarily from citizens near Big Bear City and Lake Arrowhead prompted the Fish and Game Commission to cancel the Southern California squirrel hunting season.

Tree squirrels were to have been legal game in Southern California this fall for the first time in more than 20 years. Hunting regulation booklets indicate a season beginning Sept. 13 and continuing through Jan. 25.

Bob Treanor, FGC executive secretary, said that hundreds of letters and thousands of signatures on petitions had been received in the commission office in Sacramento, protesting the squirrel hunt.

The decision to cancel the hunt appears to be the first time in recent history that the commission has canceled a hunting season for other than a biological emergency.

Briefly Inland fisheries personnel from the DFG will conduct a public information workshop Sept. 9 in Independence to describe their plans to eradicate the whirling disease that has infected trout in three Eastern Sierra creeks. . . . The 1987 U.S. BASS tournament fishing season will begin Sept. 20-21 at Lake Roosevelt, Ariz., about 100 miles northeast of Phoenix. . . . San Diego and Riverside counties will get large portions of $6,379,700 appropriated by the California Wildlife Conservation Board at its recent meeting. The board designated $446,700 in fish and wildlife habitat enhancement money for the acquisition of 293 acres of land to expand the DFG’s San Jacinto Wildlife Area in Riverside County, and $106,000 to buy 21 acres of coastal wetlands and adjacent uplands for expansion of the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve in San Diego County. . . . Hunting is America’s most enjoyable outdoor recreation, according to a nationwide recreation survey by the National Park Service. Although swimming is the most popular recreation, the survey showed, three of every four hunters said that they “particularly enjoyed” their sport, whereas only 18% of the swimmers said that they “particularly enjoyed” that recreation.