Chair’s Corner

by Glen Landrus

Chair

YOU HAVE DONE A LOT FOR WILD SHEEP, BUT THEY STILL NEED YOUR HELP

Ihope all of you are enjoying your summer, be it family vacations, preparations for upcoming hunts, or just some rest and relaxation at home, or all the above! As I sit here typing my first “Chair Letter” for the summer edition of Wild Sheep®, I want to begin with some thank you’s.

First, thank you to our members, donors, exhibitors, staff, and volunteers that made the trek to the Sheep Show® in January. It was sure nice to re-connect with old friends as well as meet new ones. Sadly, the Omicron variant still disrupted attendance for some, so we hope to see you all in Reno in 2023. A huge thank you to our donors and members for their commitment to the Wild Sheep Foundation. The conservation world is a crowded space, and we know you have many options on where to spend your time and your money. On behalf of your board of directors, thank you for your continued support of our purpose and mission!

Thank you to our outgoing chair, Dr. Peregrine Wolff. She led us through some of the most unpredictable and challenging times with a calm voice and steady hand on the gavel. From the time she was elected, the words “flatten the curve” no longer meant it was time for a new mountain rifle and “Corona” was no longer just a celebratory beer after a successful desert hunt. Despite the unprecedented challenges, Dr. Wolff led your foundation with great resolve and professionalism. Thank you!

I want to thank Dr. Sam Cunningham and the Texas Bighorn Society as well as all the Chapter & Affiliate representatives that attended the summit in Texas in late May. It was a resounding success to see all of the great collaborative work being done in the name of wild sheep everywhere. It was great to see the connections between C&A leaders and the willingness to support each other’s’ projects. Wild sheep know no boundaries and neither do our Chapters and Affiliates. The final numbers are not in yet, but it looks like well over $40,000 will be raised for water projects in Texas as well as over $165,000 to support our friends in Nebraska with their aggressive plan to rescue their Rocky Mountain bighorn herd in the northwestern part of the state. The cliché that, “everything is bigger in Texas” applies to wild sheep conservation, too, as the synergy from the summit should lead to some great things for wild sheep.

I am very excited, motivated, and humbled to serve as your chair of the board, so thank you to our board for the vote of confidence. We have a board of directors that is highly motivated, engaged, and committed to make sure our conservation and grant model is efficient, effective, and relevant to our mission. We are evaluating every aspect of our business model to make sure we are maximizing every dollar donated to ensure the future of wild sheep and your foundation.

Finally, I’d like to share a few of the goals I have as chair for the coming year: • Tell Our Story – The Wild Sheep Foundation is deeply involved with such a wide-range of projects and issues related to our purpose and mission. We must do a better job telling our story, telling our members and our donors what we do each and every day to promulgate our purpose and mission. We can’t do it without you, and we owe it to you to keep you informed on our progress. • Be Better – I challenged our board and our staff at our May meeting to simply “Be Better.” We need to communicate better, serve our membership better, serve our mission better, be better directors and to simply be better for wild sheep. Our Operational Excellence Committee is leading this process and I look forward to giving them the resources necessary to make it happen. • Conservation Funding Model – Work closely with the conservation committee, staff, and board to modify and improve our funding process to be more responsive and relevant.

I closed out my first chair report in San Antonio in May and to the Chapter/Affiliate delegation with this challenge: Do Epic Sh!t! Our members deserve it, our exhibitors deserve it, our donors deserve it, and most importantly, our wild sheep deserve it. I’m looking forward to an epic year of conservation with the Wild Sheep Foundation! WS

Yours in Conservation,

SCAN ME

LIST UPDATED QUARTERLY

YOU CAN HELP WSF PUT AND KEEP WILD SHEEP ON THE MOUNTAIN BY JOINING THE CHADWICK RAM SOCIETY!

In 2013 the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) launched a legacy campaign, Ensuring the Future of Wild Sheep, that includes tax and estate planning opportunities, counsel and advice, major gifts, and giving societies to raise the funds required to ensure the future of the wild sheep resource by directing even more dollars to wild sheep restoration, repatriation and conservation. Our vision is to build a series of funds from which a targeted annual offtake of ~4% will allow WSF to direct 100% of our convention fundraising to mission programs. Our goal is $5 to $6 million annually in mission focused Grant-In-Aid and other funding to “Put and Keep Wild Sheep on the Mountain.” With your help we can achieve this vision and goal.

The Marco Polo Society was established in 2008 as WSF’s premier giving society. To compliment the Marco Polo Society and expand this giving concept to ALL WSF members and wild sheep advocates, WSF created a new giving society in the fall of 2013 – the Chadwick Ram Society with five benefactor levels enabling tax-deductible, donor directed gifts from $250 to $5,000 per year to mission areas of the donor’s desire. Donations can be made to the WSLF Endowment Fund, WSF Conservation Fund, our annual Convention and/or Area of Greatest Need to fund specific programs and initiatives. Chadwick Ram Society members are recognized with an embroidered badge displaying their Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum benefactor level. Members may also “upgrade” their benefactor levels within the Chadwick Ram Society as well as to the Marco Polo Society.

For more information on the Chadwick Ram Society, the Marco Polo Society or the Ensuring the Future of Wild Sheep campaign, contact WSF President & CEO, Gray N. Thornton, Development Manager, Paige Culver, or visit our website.

We cordially invite you to join the Chadwick Ram Society and help Ensure the Future of Wild Sheep!

WSF SALUTES THE 2022 NEW/UPGRADE

CHADWICK RAM SOCIETY® MEMBERS

CRS MEMBERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHA ORDER BY BENEFACTOR LEVEL

PLATINUM - $50,000 George and Grace Vandenberg (CO)

SILVER - $10,000 David Antley, Jr (OR) Kemp Copeland (TX) Jeff Geiger (OH) Lucas Humbard (AK) Dan & Jessica Kluth (ID) Zachary McDermott (WY) Craig & Laureen Nakamoto (IA) Michael Opitz (WA) Greg Pope (WY) Steven Quisenberry (VA) Gary Sessions (NM) Jeremy & Jessica Tripp (ID)

BRONZE - $5,000 Aaron & Amy Burkhart (MN) Alan Day (OR) Hal & Emily Frye (AK) Paul & Tami Hanson (WA) Shad & April Hulse (UT) Rachel Kidwell (AK) James Lewis (AK) Christopher & Kari Loomis (MT) Robert E. Mays, Jr. (NV) Elliot Niemi (AK) Jerry Remaklus (AZ) Mike Schmillen (MN) J.T. “Skip” Tubbs (MT) Bob Van De Rostyne (WY)

COPPER - $2,500 Thomas Adrien (GA) Sheep Family Snapshots

LARRY & JOANNE MCGOVERN My name is Larry McGovern. I have lived in Billings, MT for 35 years and have been a member of the Wild Sheep Foundation since my first sheep hunt in Alaska in 1989.

I have watched the progress of the Wild Sheep Foundation most closely since the arrival of Gray Thornton, CEO. It’s been a rocket ride to be sure. The progress of this organization is remarkable. The staff is as good as it gets. I am honored and proud to be part of this group of conservationists. Michael Avery (LA) John Blankenship (MA) Angie Bloomquist (AK) Jason Gentz (MN) AD Hancock (FL) Charles W. Hartford (CA) Grant Hill (AK) Scott Homrich (MI) Anthony & Chris Lingenfelter (CA) Brendon McCarney (AK) Kenneth Mee (CA) Jacob Mock (AK) Carl Nelson (AK) Shawn Nelson (WY) Laura Pettett (CO) Daryl Reid (CA) Alan Shultz (CA) Jay Stanford (AK) Kelli White (AK)

I became interested in the Chadwick Ram Society as soon as I heard about it. My wife, also a Summit Life Member of the Wild Sheep Foundation, and I became members of the Chadwick Ram Society and are both impressed with the accomplishments of this society.

The Chadwick Ram Society is one of the many opportunities to support the mission of the Wild Sheep Foundation for its members, as we are and will always be.

STEVE “QUIZ” QUISENBERRY

As a young man, my days in the field were primarily hunting the east coast and my conservation focus was on bird and deer habitat. As my hunting world expanded westward, I became educated on the variety of huntable species and the survivorship of those species. This led me to the discovery of and membership in the Wild Sheep Foundation and several state chapters of the WSF. What I found was a community of passionate conservationists facing some of the toughest environmental and biological challenges on behalf of wild sheep. As I became more educated, I realized what the well-being of these animals truly requires. The survivorship and replenishment of wild sheep herds isn’t measured in short history. It is measured in decades. The WSF understands this at every level necessary to achieve their Mission and I can tell you that their culture mirrors that Mission. WSF is relentless in the pursuit of wild sheep conservation. There came a time when I realized I needed to become more invested in the Mission; the kind of involvement that spans generations. As I investigated different vehicles to accomplish this, I found the Chadwick Ram Society. I challenge you to become engaged with the Wild Sheep Foundation. At whatever level you are comfortable with.

Let’s keep wild sheep on the mountain! -WSF Chadwick Society Member -WSF Summit Life Member -ECWSF BOD and Pinnacle Life Member -WYWSF Ramshead Society Life Member