AWARDS

ARTEMIS OUTSTANDING WOMAN CONSERVATIONIST AWARD: MADELINE DEMASKE

From babyhood, Madeline “Madie” Demaske was imbued with a passion for hunting, starting when she was 18 months old riding on her father’s back as he ambled through the backcountry in search of game. Later on, wild sheep became her obsession. With her lifelong best hunting buddy, father Jeff Demaske, at her side, this year’s Artemis Award winner has harvested scores of wild sheep and goat species all over the globe. When not gliding across distant mountain ranges in search of adventure, she devotes plentiful time and enthusiasm to conservation supporting the wildlife she loves.

As a student at Montana State University-Bozeman, she served as founding president of WSF’s MSU Student Chapter. Leading the chapter, she not only educated the public about bighorn sheep conservation but also participated in the trap and transplant of 22 ewes and lambs to promote healthy populations in Montana’s Madison Range. After graduating from MSU, she earned a J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2021 and began work as a litigation associate for Safari Club International. She has assisted WSF by volunteering at the foundation’s 7th World Mountain Ungulate Conference and serving as a member of WSF’s Awards Committee and Ladies Luncheon Committee. She is currently on the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society board of directors. For two years, she was a Sitka Gear Women’s Ambassador and has devoted her energy and kindness to a number of civic causes.

Most recently, Demaske was a member of a WSF delegation to the

19th Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Her presence helped communicate WSF’s interests in conserving and restoring wild sheep and goats through sustainable-use conservation supported by international hunting.

In the hunting realm, Demaske has achieved two FNAWS and in 2012 became the youngest woman to have completed collecting a FNAWS plus 12 mountain sheep and 12 mountain goat species or subspecies worldwide. Since then, she has gone even further, collecting 20 wild sheep and 20 wild goat species or subspecies across the planet.

In addition to her life membership with WSF, she is also a life member of numerous other conservation organizations, including the Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance and Dallas Safari Club.

“If it were not for hunting and the constant efforts of conservation organizations like WSF throughout the world, I may never have seen the game and the people who live in the most remote, untouched scenic corners of the world,” Demaske says. “Not only has hunting allowed me to travel the world and see some of the most spectacular places and experience unique cultures, it has grown a fire deep inside of me to fight for something.”

And it all starts with one thing, Demaske maintains: “Take your daughters hunting!” WS

CONKLIN AWARD: DR. BRADFORD BLACK

Some people just want the Conklin Award or the Weatherby Hunting and Conservation Award. They pick their goal and structure their hunting lives around the requirements to attain that one prize. Dr. Bradford Black of Ohio wasn’t forced to choose: he won both in the same year. Also within the same 365-day span, Black was honored with Grand Slam Club/Ovis and Safari Club International’s Pantheon Award and SCI’s International Hunting Award. Four coveted jewels in the world hunter’s crown, in a year’s time.

According to the Conklin Foundation website, “The Conklin Award recognizes the world’s greatest active hunter who pursues game in the most difficult terrain and conditions, while abiding by the highest standards of ethics and fair chase, and is a strong participant in wildlife conservation.” Conferred yearly at the Sheep Show®, the Conklin Award is based on points assigned to each hunting accomplishment. In this, the award is objective, based on the numbers. Those numbers are not easy to rack up. According to Black, one way to win the Conklin is to harvest 60 wild sheep, 60 wild goats plus the North American Big Game 29 . . . two times over. Or, do the equivalent some other way.

For the past two years, Black has devoted his precious time away from his 36-year urology practice, his family, and his hunting passion, to serve as Conklin Foundation president. After seeing the previous winner, Sergey Yastrzhembsky, take the Conklin prize, Black kicked his hunting into even higher gear. “I went after it. And it was a lot of fun doing it,” he says.

In all, Black harvested 125 animals in 2021. Budgeting three months of hunting, he did his research and painstaking strategizing to score critical Conklin points quickly and efficiently.

“I did a lot of hunting that year.

I went to Pakistan and shot 19 animals, including three ibex and two wild sheep. In Ethiopia, I took 28 animals in 24 days. In Namibia, 12 animals in 10 days.”

Squeezed into the itinerary were successful hunts spanning South Africa, Zambia, Liberia and the Tanzanian archipelago Zanzibar. Then on to Mexico for 10 more hunting successes.

At the age of 40, Black began big-game hunting and since then has taken over 527 animals in 43 countries. To date, Black has collected 94 wild sheep and goats combined (34 different ibex and 31 distinct ram subspecies).

“The tough ones are the ones you remember,” Black says, pointing to his Dall’s and Stone’s, Himalayan tahr and blue sheep in Nepal, and Russian snow sheep as the experiences that imprint on the brain and torture the body.

“These are hard hunts. Not a lot of people get the permits for them. And not a lot of people want to even go do that,” Black says.

In addition to his four major world hunting honors this past year, Black has received SCI’s World Conservation and Hunting Award (2014) and Dallas Safari Club’s Outstanding Hunting and Achievement Award (2018). Though he stands in the stage spotlight, he credits Sharon, his wife of 40 years, for taking care of their five children and warmly supporting his global hunting pursuits over the decades.

The Conklin Foundation is pleased that its signature honor is presented at the Sheep Show® to recognize the best of the best in world hunting excellence.

“WSF has been really good to The Conklin Foundation, and The Conklin Foundation is proud to be a partner of the Wild Sheep Foundation,” Black says. WS

G.C.F. DALZIEL OUTSTANDING GUIDE AWARD: NATHAN (NATE) OLSON

For over 20 years, Nate Olson has exemplified excellence in the guiding profession. Since 2015, he has wowed clients of every age and ability as a guide for Mac and Léona Watson of NorthCurl Outfitters in the Yukon Territory.

“It’s surreal to think that Nate has guided over 100 sheep hunts and has yet to harvest one himself,” wrote the Watsons in their letter nominating Olson for the G.C.F. Dalziel Outstanding Guide Award. “Guides aspire to be like him, and outfitters are lucky to get guides like him.”

From 2001 to 2014, Olson guided for Dale Drinkall in northern British Columbia, Terminus Mountain Outfitters and Folding Mountain Outfitters for sheep, moose, caribou, goat, and grizzly bear. During this same time, once sheep season was over, he guided for Peter Kalden of Davis Point Lodge and Outfitting Ltd. in Manitoba for black bear and whitetail. Over the past two decades with Kalden, Olson has taken around 200 bear hunters and 150 deer hunters on high adventure with tremendous success.

Work has always been a family affair for Olson. While Nate guides, his wife Amy cooks and their four children help with camp chores.

“Nate and Amy’s hunt/camp experience has received 100% customer satisfaction since the beginning,” the Watsons said.

In the many nomination letters supporting Olson, he is described as meticulous, both in keeping a perfect camp, conducting a flawless hunt and caring for the horses and the animals his clients pursue. Time and again, clients say Olson’s love of his vocation shows in everything he does from the moment he meets his hunters. He cuts no corners in delivering the most ethical hunting experience, and along the way dazzles his clients with poetry recitations by heart or harmonica performances in the firelight. Or encyclopedic knowledge of the local flora, fauna and geography. Or while packing out sheep in the wee hours, Olson’s nonstop joking to keep the weary clients’ minds off their grumbling bellies and tired joints. Optimism is the truest form of moral courage, it is said, and Nate Olson exhibits it daily.

“Nate proved that he is the person you would want at your spike camp in the best of times and the worst of times,” one client summarized.

Perhaps the most compelling nomination came from a disabled young hunter who told Olson from the get-go that he suffered chronic health conditions that would make the prospect of Dall’s sheep hunting bleak at best. Olson worked night and day to “offer a sick young man like myself the best experience possible. Two thousand feet of elevation gain on the first day just to find the band of rams had fed over the next ridge was brutal, yet there was Nate: Smiles ear to ear and a simple, ‘Now you’re sheep hunting!’ made us all appreciate the trials of the hunt, not just the kill.”

The expedition ended with backstraps over the fire and a lifelong friendship. Olson had transformed a bleak prospect into a triumph.

“Never was there a piece of country that Nate didn’t know or a sheep too far. I am thankful for the opportunity to have met such a good man, and to have learned the real meaning of sheep and sheep hunting from Nate Olson.”

Yet, as he accepted his award at the Sheep Show®’s Grand Finale Banquet, Olson seemed to hesitate. “It’s an unbelievable honor,” he said. “The one who deserves this award is my wife for what she’s put up with.” WS