Chair’s Corner

by Peregrine L. Wolff, DVM

Chair

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

Istepped into the position of chair of the board during the peak of the first COVID wave which immediately required a change in how business at WSF and with the board was done. I didn’t realize it at the time, but we were embarking on an adaptive management journey.

Adaptive management is defined as a “robust decision-making process in the face of uncertainty.” The aim is to reduce uncertainty over time via monitoring your program and then using that information to assess and adjust future objectives and progress. This process involves ‘Iterative decision-making’ or evaluating results and adjusting your actions based on what you have just learned. Although adaptive management had its origins in natural resource management, it is not commonly employed in many state wildlife management agencies.

Every hunt that you go on, involves adaptive management. You use it to deal with the uncertainties that you know you will constantly encounter. For example, you plan to get to camp at 10 AM on day one and be on the mountain glassing for rams at noon. A weather front is forecasted to move into the area the night before you plan to leave. By monitoring the updates on the storm, you determine that the route you had planned to take to base camp is no longer accessible and you must use another route. If you still want to be glassing for rams at noon, you now need to leave three hours earlier to accommodate the new route.

This process is exactly what WSF staff employed in 2021 and 2022 to deliver two excellent, but different, WSF conventions. The staff and the board studied the best information that was available to deliver a virtual conference in 2021, then used the knowledge gained from that experience, coupled with the latest updates on limits to public gatherings, mask mandates, border closures, emerging novel strains and most importantly, WSF members eagerness for an in-person convention, to bring us Sheep Week® 2022. During the week, staff used adaptive management principles to implement their plan, monitor the results and then use that information to assess and adjust the plan, then implement a new plan, and then start the process all over again.

Let’s now look at why adaptive management is necessary for the conservation of wild sheep. Conserving or recovering a species is a management effort with a high amount of uncertainty and where adaptive management is highly effective. There are many dynamic, factors, meaning those characterized by constant change, that affect populations of wild sheep. For instance, habitats for wild sheep are impacted by the presence of predators, climate fluctuation, and how human use impacts that habitat. Populations can fluctuate in relation to habitat dynamics, in addition to disease, as well as active management programs such as hunting or translocations. Another layer of uncertainty is added when we understand that not all populations react the same to these dynamic factors, and that some factors such as the organisms involved in causing disease are involved in their own microscopic adaptive management exercise to ensure their survival.

The effective use of adaptive management requires good data that is monitored and assessed frequently. Checking local weather updates, or the latest state restrictions on wearing masks, are safe, cheap and can be accessed in real-time allowing an immediate assessment and change in objectives. In contrast, gathering information on mountain ungulate populations can take years, usually involves bureaucracy, large expense, and danger to those conducting the work. Scientists interpreting the information may have varying opinions on what that data means, or by the time it is organized and interpreted and shared the situation on the mountain has changed.

It is hard to set objectives, monitor, assess and adjust, at the pace needed to effectively manage wild sheep populations in the face of increasing impacts. However, we need to employ the nimbleness of an adaptive management process now more than ever before. The challenges facing wild sheep are increasing each year. For decades, disease has been the primary impediment to recovery and conservation of

bighorn populations. Could climate impacts such as prolonged drought in the West, changing snow, and rain patterns in the North, or public attitudes or government policies towards public land use, and hunting eclipse disease as a bigger problem for wild sheep conservation range wide? We don’t know, but we do know that we need ongoing high-quality data to effectively use an adaptive management approach to address these challenges.

Thanks to the generosity of sheep hunters and the many conservation and education programs implemented through WSF and the chapters and affiliates, wild sheep managers have had the funding to collect high quality data and answer many questions. However, many gaps remain as new ones are being discovered that impact our decisions on how best to conserve wild sheep. To ensure that your children’s children can carry on your legacy of a hunter conservationist, I encourage you to understand and further engage in the many programs to ensure a future for wild sheep through WSF and your local chapter or affiliates. Ask how these programs will support an adaptive management process, and if they don’t, ask why not. Every member can make a difference to the conservation of wild sheep, all you need to do is ask how. WS

Respectfully,

Peregrine L. Wolff, DVM

Chair, Wild Sheep Foundation

MAY 3-5, 2022 • WHITEHORSE, YT

JERRY HERROD

FOR SUMMIT INFORMATION CONTACT

Kevin Hurley: 406.404.8753 • khurley@wildsheepfoundation.org | Megan Costanza: 406.404.8769 • mcostanza@wildsheepfoundation.org

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 Kemp Copeland (TX) Jeff Geiger (OH) Dan & Jessica Kluth (ID) Zachary McDermott (WY) Craig & Laureen Nakamoto (IA) Michael Opitz (WA) Greg Pope (WY) Steven Quisenberry (VA) Jeremy & Jessica Tripp (ID)

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

COPPER - $2,500 Michael Avery (LA) Jason Gentz (MN) AD Hancock (FL) Charles W. Hartford (CA) Scott Homrich (MI) Anthony & Chris Lingenfelter (CA) Brendon McCarney (AK) Kenneth Mee (CA) Shawn Nelson (WY) Laura Pettett (CO) Alan Shultz (CA) Jay Stanford (AK)

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. 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