Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep once roamed much of the western United States but are now found in only a fraction of their historic range after human expansion, disease, market hunting, and fire suppression contributed to the decline of their populations and habitat. Management actions by state and federal agencies, tribal governments, and wildlife conservation groups have restored wild sheep to many of their former ranges. The Absaroka Mountains in northwest Wyoming, including Wind River Canyon, support nearly 80 percent of the bighorn sheep in Wyoming, although during most of the 20th century Wind River Canyon supported relatively few. In 1995, 43 bighorn sheep from Whiskey Basin near Dubois were released into Wind River Canyon on the Wind River Reservation to repopulate this historic range, and bighorn sheep now can be seen on the rocky cliffs, the bunchgrass-covered slopes, and along the river’s edge throughout the canyon. Bighorn sheep prefer and depend on open, rough country with high visibility to detect and avoid predators, and fire, whether naturally occurring or deliberately ignited by managers under very specific environmental conditions, plays a major role in maintaining and enhancing habitat throughout wild sheep range. Periodic fires prevent an overabundance of shrubs and trees from establishing on wild sheep ranges, providing bighorn sheep open high quality habitat and enhancing their ability to detect and escape predators. Several beneficial fires can be seen along the rugged slopes of Wind River Canyon, and these fires together with the 1995 transplant of 43 bighorn sheep and subsequent management are intended to help ensure a herd of bighorn sheep in Wind River Canyon well into the future.