THE STATE OF TAJIKISTAN ARGALI IMPORTS

The argali of Tajikistan are some of the most regal animals on the planet, living very near the top of the world.

With an estimated population of more than 30,000, they are thriving in certain areas of the Central Asian nation.

Argali trophies legally harvested in Tajikistan, however, cannot currently be imported into the United States.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has denied import permits from Tajikistan for the last two years, and there are a lot of questions about what is going on in Mongolia as well,” said Kurt Alt, Conservation Director of International Sheep & Goat Programs for Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF).

Alt held a conference call with USFWS and stakeholders such as outfitters at the 2023 Sheep Show® in Reno.

“This meeting was to have USFWS present the requirements of the imports. They covered CITES and ESA and went through all their requirements to issue a permit so that everyone in the room could understand what they are asking for because there is confusion,” Alt said.

The big question among WSF and stakeholders is what information is needed from the Tajikistan government that hasn’t already been given.

“We didn’t get to that point and even after the meeting at the Sheep Show® we still don’t know as a group and we asked repeatedly,” Alt said.

WSF helped facilitate a meeting between USFWS officials at the CITES meeting in Panama Nov. 2022.

“The person we’re working with at USFWS has been great and generally provides us with great information. When we asked her now that they’ve met with Tajikistan officials, what else they might need we were told she couldn’t share that information, due to certain privacy laws,” Alt said.

He said there was a lack of communication between Central Asian government officials and USFWS under the auspices of CITES and ESA. The governments weren’t responding to requests for information. Mongolia had major information-sharing issues but has since started providing that.

“Well, it sounds like that is changing and they are sharing information. So, now, we as a group of hunting-conservation interests, want to know what we can do to help. We just didn’t get an answer to our biggest question,” Alt said.

USFWS has gone from doing country-wide assessments, to issue case-by-case permits due to a particular legal case. That caused a major slowdown and has been part of the current situation.

“We’re at the point where we probably need to address the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a collective of hunting conservation groups and ask how we can be a force to help facilitate information gathering and move this forward,” Alt said.

Several of the people on the call voiced concerns that if this doesn’t change and hunters stop going that the resource will be harmed.

“Hunter dollars and conservation projects help support the local communities and keep the resource as a valuable commodity. It gives the incentive to keep argali and other mountain wildlife populations healthy,” Alt said.

Interestingly, markhor which numbers around 8,000 (far fewer than argali) in Tajikistan can be imported.

“A group put together a very comprehensive survey of markhor populations and it satisfied USFWS. There is no problem there, so there’s some information we just haven’t gotten on the argali issue and as of now it remains a big question mark,” Alt said.

WSF is continuing to work on this project and find positive steps to get argali permits out of the backlog and move forward to keeping hunterbased conservation on the ground where it counts most. WS

by Chester Moore

STATE OF THE MOUNTAIN: WSF MEMBER MEETING SETS TONE FOR 2023 AT SHEEP SHOW®

ild sheep were not going to take a hit. Other things might be impacted but not wild sheep, not on our watch.”

Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) President & CEO Gray Thornton boldly stated the mindset of the organization during the pandemic era at the group’s annual meeting at the 2023 Sheep Show® in Reno, NV.

“We had a little dip but fared well compared to some organizations and were able to keep putting lots of money on the ground for wild sheep conservation,” he added.

The meeting served as an opportunity to update members on projects and projections, get feedback, and set the tone for the upcoming year.

A big part of the presentation involved Grant-In-Aid, which was majorly revamped in 2022.

“We offered 1.21 million dollars in grants and only received about $780,000 in requests and not all of them were very good. So, we revamped our Grant-In-Aid last spring and focused on looking at bigger projects,” Thornton said.

Those projects were $50,000 and above and some legacy projects are in the $150-$250,000 range.

“We decided to let our grant requests come through our chapters and affiliates. We wanted to focus on the larger projects and allow them to work with the smaller ones. And the results have been fantastic. We have allocated $1.22 million for these special projects,” Thornton said.

One project is a three-state initiative in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington (I.O.N.) that will capture and sample 275 sheep.

“This is a multi-year, multijurisdictional adaptive management project to investigate further “test and remove” as a strategy to clear Movi from bighorn sheep populations,” said Kevin Hurley, WSF’s VP of Conservation.

In winter 2021-22, 249 bighorns in four populations were captured and tested in this tri-state project; during winter 2022-23, 275 sheep in seven populations will be tested.

Other projects have funded translocation in Nebraska, controlled burns in British Columbia, and a special project with Working Dogs for Conservation that could see dogs used for sheep disease detection.

A strategy of the revamped GrantIn-Aid process is to attract more money to big projects.

For example, WSF gave $50,000 to the Wind River Reservation for feral horse removal and that helped bring in other NGOs and $340,000 to that project.

“It’s kind of like success begets success,” Thornton said.

Kurt Alt, Conservation Director with WSF Montana and of International Sheep & Goat Programs for WSF, gave a very positive report from Montana.

“Montana was not doing a lot specifically for sheep for a while, but they have just made a major commitment. The agency will commit $5.5 million to wild sheep over the next five years, and we believe there will be a total 10-year commitment,” he said.

This includes habitat work, test and remove operations, and establishing sheep herds in new areas.

WSF Chair Glen Landrus said these successes show a focused commitment to conservation and doing epic projects in the face of major challenges for wild sheep ranging from disease to predation and habitat loss.

“There are many obstacles but WSF members, its affiliates, and our various supporters are doing an amazing job in moving forward and doing great things to Put and Keep Wild Sheep on the Mountain®,” Landrus said.

Speaking of members, WSF has seen record numbers since the pandemic. The 2020-21 period saw incredible growth of 23 percent with help from increased outdoor interest during the COVID lockdowns and the online Sheep Show® .

All levels of membership are at record levels with 10,553 in general membership, 4,840 life members, and 768 Summit life members.

Terry Meyers, Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society, took to the microphone to echo the positive feeling in the room when it was opened for questions and comments.

“We’re seeing some good things happening in Colorado. Our annual population survey just came out and there are 7,485 Rocky Mountain bighorns, which is the largest population estimate since intensive restoration began in the 1970s,” he said.

He said Colorado has not had an all-age die-off since 2006, but there are concerns with intermingling of wild and domestic sheep on the western tier of the state.

“We’re hoping to sign an agreement for a big risk-of-contact project in the western San Juan Mountains. It’ll be a major project where we must raise big funds quickly, but it could be a major achievement for wild sheep in the state.”

Other topics were discussed but the heart of the matter is WSF is in a strong position and poised to move forward with its continued vision of

Putting and Keeping Wild Sheep on the Mountain® .

The 2023 Chapter & Affiliates Summit was announced for June 1517 in Rapid City, SD where national, state, tribal, and provincial leaders will gather to plan, strategize, and focus on the cause of wild sheep. WS