In fact, a few years after discovering the herds in southern Utah, disease hit the sheep in the north end of the San Juan area, and biologists feared it might spread to other wild sheep. Fortunately, it didn't.

Around the mid-1970s, the DWR started an aggressive transplant program from sheep caught and moved from areas of the San Juan and the Escalante units.

"We had an agreement with Canyonlands (National Park) and were able to trap sheep in Canyonlands, which we did, and moved them to places like Arches and the Maze and Needles areas of Canyonlands," said Karpowitz.

Back then the only recognized capture method involved tangling the sheep in large nets.

"We started out using tangle nets, which were long lengths of net. We would drive the sheep into the net. It was hard on the sheep, and we did have some mortality. We didn't like to use the tangle net, so we started to experiment with other ways," he recalled.

"We tried the net gun and found it far superior, and that opened a new door to our transplant program. We were able to move more sheep with fewer problems. At first we did it within the division, then we went with private operators."

A net gun involves shooting a net from a helicopter and trapping a single sheep.

The one limiting factor in the early years was funding. It was expensive to catch and move sheep. It is estimated that to capture, conduct necessary blood tests and move sheep today costs roughly between $600 and $700 per animal.

The opportunity to sell a Utah sheep permit on the open market to the highest bidder through the Utah chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep proved to be a windfall.

"That first tag went for $20,000, which back then was a lot of money. This allowed us to move some Rocky Mountain sheep from Wyoming into areas near Flaming Gorge and Mount Nebo. Over the years we've also been able to trade for sheep."

Trading might involve giving fish or elk or antelope to those states with large herds of sheep.

Prior to the Wyoming transplant, there were very few Rocky Mountain sheep in Utah.

Around this time, the program got another boost. Conservation groups started working with ranchers to switch from raising sheep to cattle.

The first group of California bighorn were brought into Utah in 1997 and placed on Antelope Island, where they've done well. Sheep from the island have been caught and are now on the Newfoundland and Stansbury mountains.

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E-mail: grass@desnews.com