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<br />Vegetation in and around the bighorn sheep habitat has been <br />mapped and classified into eight communities, three of which <br />aTe important to the herd. (Exhibit G). The pinyon-juniper <br />community is the most widespread throughout the area; the <br />box elder-reed-horsetail community is located along the <br />rivers; and sage and Indian rice grass are found along the <br />canyon walls. <br /> <br />-' <br /> <br />Sheep tend to concentrate along the river banks in SUDmlBr <br />and fall because of their preference for lush green forage. <br />However, there appears to be little competition between deer <br />and sheep at this time. There is some competition during the <br />winter months when deer move into the canyons. The bighorn <br />range is in good condition and the herd has apparently not <br />surpassed the carrying capacity of the area. Among recom- <br />mendations in "Bighorn Sheep and Their Habitat in Dinosaur <br />National Monument," a master's thesis written by William J. <br />Barmore in 1962, is "consideration of the bighorn sheep's <br />need for a wilderness habitat in Park Service development plans <br />for the monument." <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />The riparian habitats in the Canyon of Lodore are vital to the <br />bighorn during at least half of the yeat. The 811118 habitats <br />are even more important in the lives of the beaver. Beaver <br />are common along the river, harvesting both the cottonwood <br />and box elder trees. <br /> <br />Deer hunting is a concentrated activity close to the monument <br />and proposed wilderness for about two weeks per year in each <br />state. Hunting also occumon private lands within the monument, <br />but there are no private lands within the proposed wilderness. <br />Hunting outside the monument is an important and popular <br />recreational activity, and as the deer do not migrate from <br />major SUlllllll!l' ranges outside the monument to winter ranges 123? <br />inside the IIDnument until November, the annual harvest h <br />generally high. <br /> <br />The only well documented example of deer living the year around <br />within the monument and not being subject to reduction by <br />hunting is the Harpers Corner herd of approximately fifty <br />head. These animals live on the Harpers Comer area until <br />about February when their movements are hampered by snow, then <br />they return to the high country in April. The summer and winter <br />ranges of this herd are only marginally in contact with the <br />proposed wilderness. <br /> <br />Robert Franzen in his master's thesis, "The Abundance, Migration <br />and Management of Mule Deel" in Dinosaur National Monument ," <br />(1968), states "Deer use within the Lodore Canyon is very <br /> <br />17 <br />