President’s Message

by Gray N. Thornton

President & CEO

GIA REFRESH REAPS REWARDS FOR WILD SHEEP

The summer is sadly winding to a close, but the fall brings late season sheep and other hunts to enjoy as well as our annual Sheep Show® planning, which is well underway.

This summer was also a flurry of WSF events kicked off with the Schnee’s and WSF Ram Rendezvous in downtown Bozeman in early July, followed by WSF participation at the Total Archery Challenge in Big Sky. August found WSF and our twin axle Texas smoker supporting the Stone Glacier Grand Opening Party at their new Bozeman flagship location, and the next day, supporting a SITKA Depot event with Randy Newberg. All in all, we estimate that WSF provided more than 2,000 smoked pulled pork sandwiches and Texas kielbasas during July and August as part of our industry partner support and public/community outreach program.

During the month of July, WSF opened our annual conservation Grant-In-Aid application window. This year we focused on projects $50,000 and above and required all to come through our Chapter and Affiliate partners. In 30 days WSF received $1.8 Million in requests which were vetted by our conservation staff and Professional Resource Advisory Board and then presented to the WSF Board for review and consideration. During our September 1st Board meeting, the board approved the funding of $1,222,637 in GIA requests.

These $1.22+ Million in approved conservation grants are but one “bucket” of the $2.6 Million Mission Programs budget in our July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 fiscal year. Added with an anticipated $4 Million that will be directed to our state, provincial and tribal/First Nation partners through 2023 conservation permit sales, WSF is on track to direct for the sixth year in a row more than $6 Million annually in Mission Program Funding.

A summary of the fifteen projects we approved are listed below:

1. Prescribed Burns for Wild Sheep Enhancement in NE British Columbia

Approved Grant: ........$250, 087

Summary

Prescribed burning in known wild sheep habitats in northeastern BC; enhancement of winter/lambing habitat by improving quality of forage available in areas w/ decreased risk of predation. Annual treatment 5001,000 hectares (1,200-2,500 acres) of wild sheep habitat during spring (May-June) each year.

2. Oregon/Idaho/ Washington Test & Remove Bighorn Sheep Program

Approved Grant: .........$177,000

Summary

Year three of multi-jurisdictional adaptive management project to further investigate “test and remove” to clear Movi from bighorn sheep populations. Objective: to improve health of BHS populations at Burnt R., OR; Lookout Mtn, OR; Lower Salmon R., ID; Lostine, OR; and Yakima Canyon, WA. Year two work expanded to include Lower Panther – Main Salmon population in ID and Cleman Mountain population in WA, as a control. In winter 2021-22, 249 bighorns in four (4) populations were captured/sampled. Year three proposed to capture/sample 275 sheep in seven populations.

3. California Bighorn Sheep Population Analysis, Test & Remove, Health and Disease Surveillance in Idaho, Oregon & Nevada (ION Initiative)

Approved Grant: .........$152,450

Two Part Program: 1) Test and Remove Movi clearance efforts and 2) BHS herd survey, population analysis, and health/disease surveillance. WSF funding will be used for contracted helicopter services to capture and survey bighorns, contracted infrared fixed-wing surveys, to cover fuel costs of volunteers accomplishing coordinated ground surveys, GPS collars and pathogen sampling and testing costs. Outreach and public information would be accomplished, including social media, press releases, articles in newsletters and video production.

4. Socorro (New Mexico) BLM Field Office – Landscape-Scale Water Projects

Approved Grant: .........$106,000

WSF funding will be used to fund water development and livestock exclosure supplies and materials and/or construction of a 1,000 ft2 catchment + 1-1.5 acre exclosure. Current desert bighorn sheep population estimate is 250-275. Expected to increase with added water.

5. Fraser River (British Columbia) Year Five Surveillance, Recovery, & Management

Approved Grant: .........$100,000

Summary

Three Program Grant: 1) Year five of the Fraser River (British Columbia) bighorn sheep Disease Mitigation Program, BC’s first Test and Remove that is showing promising results in clearing Movi and recovering Canada’s largest CABHS metapopulation. 2) Thompson River bighorn sheep Health Assessment, which seeks to tease apart the relative roles of health, predation and habitat in the 50% decline of Thompson River bighorn sheep herds in recent years. 3) Support for British Columbia’s 1stever “Wild Sheep Summit.”

6. Hart Mountain (Oregon) Bighorn Sheep Recovery

Approved Grant: .........$100,000

Summary

The California bighorn sheep herd on Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in SE Oregon declined from ~150 animals in 2017 to less than 48 in 2020. Consequently, the herd is at risk of extirpation without prompt management intervention. In 2022, the Hart Mountain Bighorn Sheep Management Plan & Environmental Impact Study was developed to identify management actions to aid herd recovery. An integrated management approach focusing on short-term predator control (mountain lions) and longterm habitat management (juniper control and added water sources) are specifically targeted to benefit and recover bighorn and support a sustainable herd. WSF funding will focus on short-term mountain lion control.

7. Bighorn Sheep Restoration to Nebraska Panhandle

Approved Grant: .......... $50,000

Summary

Nebraska Game & Parks Commission (NGPC) recently completed cleanup of two primary bighorn herds in the Pine Ridge region of northern Nebraska’s Panhandle. By implementing a Test and Remove strategy, NGPC removed chronic disease-carrying ewes, preparing the way for future reintroductions. Plans are underway for fall of 2022 and winter 20222023 to helicopter capture, GPS radio-collar, sample, and disease-test 50-70 bighorn sheep from two herds in the Wildcat Hills region of the southern Nebraska panhandle. Most captured bighorns would remain in the Wildcat Hills, but 20-25 bighorns would be transplanted to the eastern Pine Ridge region of the panhandle. With a successful winter 2022-2023 transplant to Pine Ridge, another transplant would be implemented in winter 2023-24, to the western portion of Pine Ridge.

8. Field Testing and Management Application of Canine Disease Detection Westwide

Approved Grant: .......... $50,000

Summary

In 2021-22, with WSF and private funding, Working Dogs 4 Conservation (WD4C) demonstrated that specially-trained dogs are capable of discriminating scat pellets of Movi-infected domestic sheep from scat of uninfected individuals. WD4C will extend this work to include wild bighorn sheep and begin applying these methods to wild, freeranging bighorn sheep populations. WSF funding is sought to enable/ pilot two important tools for wild sheep management/conservation: 1) real-time screening of captured bighorns for Movi infection; and 2) environmental assessment of Movi presence in bighorn sheep habitat.

9. Harcuvar Mountains (Arizona) Desert Bighorn Sheep Restoration

Approved Grant: .......... $50,000

Summary

WSF funding will help purchase ten GPS collars for desert bighorn sheep that will be transplanted Fall 2022 into the Eastern Harcuvar Mountains. Our goal is to collar all thirty desert bighorns to monitor their movements and habits. We would also put out three additional temporary water tanks to monitor desert bighorn use for future permanent water guzzlers.

WSF funding would also help pay for a 500-gallon heavy duty water trailer dedicated to the Harcuvar Mountains waters. The new permanent water developments planned will also be built with the help of WSF funds.

10. Wind River Reservation (Wyoming) Feral Horse Gathering

Approved Grant: .......... $50,000

Summary

An over-abundance of feral horses is causing significant impacts to bighorn sheep and their habitats on the Wind River Reservation (WRR). Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game, along with Bureau of Indian Affairs and a small tribal contractor have worked diligently over the last two years, removing 1,100 feral horses, with a minimum of 5,000 remaining across WRR. Many hundreds compete directly with bighorns on range occupied by the Temple Peak & Owl Creek bighorn herds. Funding from WSF will help pay for a professional helicopter horse-gather contractor to remove hundreds of feral horses from bighorn occupied range.

11. Trap, Test, Transplant Desert Bighorns from Al Campo to Sierra El Alamo (Sonora, Mexico)

Approved Grant: .......... $40,000

Summary

WSF funding will be used to cover costs of capture, care during quarantine, sampling, veterinary expenses, translocation and release of free-ranging desert bighorns. To date, 236 desert bighorns have been successfully released to Sierra El Alamo. The operation will result in expanded free-ranging desert bighorn within the Sierra El Alamo target area and neighboring properties.

12.Water Distribution & Delivery System – Sierra El Alamo (Mexico)

Approved Grant: .......... $30,000

Summary Water is vital to conserving desert bighorns conservation at Sierra El Alamo. Very limited, water is the most important factor for continued expansion of bighorn populations. Most water is currently provided by drinkers and water catchments. WSF funding will be used to expand the ongoing gravity water distribution and delivery system project, for the benefit of desert bighorns on Sierra El Alamo and neighboring properties.

13.Chronic Carriers & Bighorn Sheep Population Density: Evaluation/ Implementation of Management Tools (Wyoming)

Approved Grant: .......... $40,000

Summary

WSF funding will be mainly used to help cover contract costs for bighorn capture and/or projects. Our work seeks to understand how we can more effectively manage chronically infected populations—both through nutritional strategies and pathogenreduction strategies. In doing so, we have the opportunity to learn how to more effectively manage bighorn and their habitat through strategies rooted in science. Benefits of this continued research will come from implementation of these management strategies intended to directly benefit the populations they target, and intensive monitoring of the effect of these strategies will inform management of bighorn populations throughout their range.

14.Desert Bighorn Sheep Collaring on Desert National Wildlife Refuge (DNWR) for Improved Population Management (Nevada)

Approved Grant: .......... $19,500

Summary

USFWS is seeking WSF funding to capture/collar ten adult desert bighorn sheep in the Desert and E. Desert Ranges of DNWR in either November 2022 or spring 2023. The proposed bighorn collaring project expands previous efforts to assess the viability of the DNWR bighorn metapopulations. WSF is funding $19,500 for helicopter/ crew capture costs for ten bighorns @$1,950/animal captured.

15.Edit Transmission Film for Legislator Education & Advocacy

Approved Grant: ............ $7,600

Summary

WSF will fund the editing and modification of the ~58-minute Wild Sheep Society of BC film Transmission down to a ~15-minute film suitable for sharing with local, state, provincial and federal legislators to educate them on the disease issue between domestic stock and bighorn sheep and pathways forward to mitigate transmission.

TOTAL CONSERVATION GIA REQUESTS APPROVED: $1,222,637

The wild sheep resource will be well served by this WSF funding of these impactful projects and programs!

Lastly, I’m pleased to report a very significant staffing promotion made during August. 35-year WSF staffer Kim Nieters was promoted to Vice President of Operations to better support our Bozeman HQ as well as Cody, Idaho and Reno remote staff. Kim will continue to serve as Director of our Auction and Hunting Awards programs but has added this staff support and “second in command” role to her substantial portfolio.

Please join me in congratulating Kim on this well-deserved promotion!

Enjoy the fall hunting seasons! WS

Gray N. Thornton

President & CEO, Wild Sheep Foundation Editor-in-Chief, Wild Sheep® magazine