Alaska Llamas Blog

Here's an opportunity for public comment that will help the llama/alpaca industry.  The Alaska Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing a draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) for future public land management actions in in a region known as the Bering Sea Western Interior (BSWI) Resource Management Area. (There are several BLM-RMA’s in Alaska and BSWI is just one of them.) The RMP for this region bans the use of camelids (llamas and alpacas) in sheep habitat due to a perceived disease threat. BLM’s proposal to restrict use of camelids (llamas and alpacas) due to a perceived "health risk" to wild sheep is unscientifically founded and unjustly stigmatizes camelids. If BLM proceeds with this proposed policy of banning camelids in Alaska based on a disease threat, it could have far reaching implications for all public lands in Alaska as well as those in the lower 48 states. It is important to note that BLM’s position on this issue is not shared by other public