More than $25 million needed to bolster bighorn sheep population

RENO " The federal government says efforts to bolster populations of the threatened Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep will cost about $27.5 million over 20 years.

The cost projection is included in a draft economic analysis released Tuesday of a proposed 416,000-acre critical habitat declaration.

The area includes portions of five California counties in the central Sierra.

Because most of the land is federally owned, the cost associated with the declaration itself is estimated at $135,000.

Bob Williams, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Nevada, says public comments on the economic analysis, as well as the critical habitat designation, will be accepted until March 6.