2023 AWARDS

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: JIM AND LEANN CRAIG

For more than 30 years, Jim and Leann Craig of Bloomfield, Indiana, have been supporting and promoting WSF in spectacular ways. They have attended every FNAWS/WSF convention since 1988 – other than the San Diego FNAWS convention due to a car accident. They are WSF auction and permit buyers, auction donors, convention and showbooth volunteers, and table buyers. As advocates and ambassadors for conservation, the Craigs have brought many celebrities into the WSF family, including the First Lady of Indiana Janet Holcomb, who is a new sheep hunter and graced the convention issue of Wild Sheep® magazine with her stunning Yukon ram.

In addition to giving so much to WSF, the Craigs have been 25-plusyear volunteers and committee and banquet chairs for WSF partner organizations, including the NRA, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Safari Club International.

The Craigs are heavily involved in youth education and outreach and for years operated the Craig Family Camp, a youth shooting and hunting education experience on their farm. They continue to educate through regular presentations to youth groups and by opening their Craig Wildlife Museum to area schools and other organizations for young people. Every year, the Craigs host numerous youth hunts, and they mentor both young and old to be sheep hunters and wild sheep conservationists.

In addition to all this service, the Craigs are avid mountain hunters. Jim has completed 7 ¾ FNAWS. He has actually completed eight but does not count a bighorn he took in British Columbia in 1994, as it was taken by a grizzly while he was waiting two days on the mountain for a helicopter rescue after he was brutally mauled and severely injured by another grizzly while packing out the ram.

Humble, impactful, tireless and dedicated servants of WSF, the Craigs are also tough. Now in their 80s, these two sheep soulmates continue to support and advocate for what they consider the finest conservation organization in the world. They stand as examples of how, as we age and mature, we can remain relevant leaders steering the world in a positive direction.

Perhaps it is best summarized by WSF’s Auction and Awards Director Kim Nieters, who said as the Craigs accepted their award, “God gave you to us.” WS

OUTSTANDING CONSERVATIONIST: DR. ERIC ROMINGER

WSF’S 2023 Outstanding Conservationist Award recipient Dr. Eric Rominger of the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish is a respected scientist, researcher, and field biologist who has devoted his professional career and much of his personal life to the restoration and scientific understanding of New Mexico’s desert bighorn sheep. Along the way, he has made lasting contributions to the scientific community’s understanding of predator-prey relationships and how they impact modern wildlife management.

When Rominger joined the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish, desert bighorns were in serious trouble. Only about 150-160 desert bighorns remained in New Mexico. In the previous 20 years, that number had only increased by 70 sheep statewide.

Rominger embarked on a relentless campaign to confirm the root cause of the problem. Essentially living out of his truck for some time, he identified and documented causes of decline and slow recovery in desert