2023 AWARDS

bighorn populations. Rominger challenged the status quo and proposed aggressive management actions to minimize the primary threat to bighorn recovery: mountain lion predation. Thanks to his thoroughly documented field work, meticulous data collecting and extensive research, the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish implemented targeted mountain lion management to facilitate recovery in several new and existing desert sheep ranges.

The success of this program is a testament to Rominger’s work, and New Mexico’s desert bighorn recovery would not have been possible without his efforts. Today, approximately 1,200 desert sheep thrive across seven different mountain ranges in the state, and New Mexico now offers 28 desert ram hunting tags annually. This would have been unheard of in the first years Rominger embarked on his career.

For the past 27 years, Rominger has been the key driver in moving New Mexico’s bighorn sheep program forward, but he has seen a few setbacks. Like the time, on a sheeptrapping operation in the Pecos, Rominger found himself hanging upside down beneath a helicopter when one of his boots got caught on a cargo net. Or the time he was attacked by a swarm of Africanized killer bees while conducting desert bighorn work. Or when one of his feet was crushed after a group of Rio Grande Gorge rams above him sent a landslide of boulders his way. In all, six species of ungulates, including an angry caribou he was studying, have landed Rominger in the hospital, but he always speaks fondly of his work adventures.

Just last year, while doing some mountain lion field work, Rominger was tossed from his trusty mule, sending him to the hospital with a collapsed lung, shattered ribs and other serious injuries. We can thank his partner Debbie Crawford for nursing him back to health and getting him back on his worn and weathered feet.

His leadership record, technical authority, perseverance and battle scars incurred for wild sheep science and management make Dr. Eric Rominger the ideal WSF Outstanding Conservationist. His is a wild-sheep life lived well and yes: lived more than a bit dangerously. WS

STATE STATESMAN AWARD: TONY WASLEY

Over his 26-year service with the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), Tony Wasley has made significant contributions to wild sheep in the Silver State, throughout the western U.S., and beyond. He rose through the NDOW ranks, starting as a wildlife habitat specialist, area biologist, and mule deer project leader before serving nearly a decade as NDOW’s director. His influence and innovative thinking have been vital in advancing wildlife management in Nevada and across the nation.

After becoming NDOW director in 2013, Wasley guided acquisitions of key wildlife habitat, strengthened critical industry partnerships, increased the state’s inventory of wildlife management areas, and oversaw the post-fire rehabilitation of over a half million acres of wildlife habitat in the last five years. Facing an ever-evolving political environment in a state of three million where fewer than two percent identify as hunters and most population is urban, Wasley worked to educate the public and government about the relevance of NDOW’s conservation work while raising awareness that all Nevadans are connected to the outdoors and the state’s natural resources.

In Nevada, Wasley has been a strong supporter and contributor to the recovery of desert, California, and Rocky Mountain bighorns. He has been a stalwart advocate for WSF, the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn, and other Nevada organizations dedicated to bighorn recovery.

Those who know and admire him say Wasley has always led with courage, resulting in an NDOW poised for greater future success, with the agility to change with the times, stay relevant and forge partnerships and cooperation across the divides of differing opinions. His deeply personal zeal for conservation has been contagious and effective at NDOW and with the public.

“People don’t buy into what you do but why you do it,” Wasley said in receiving WSF’s State Statesman honor.

Meanwhile, he bolstered NDOW’s effectiveness with enhanced equipment, vehicles, and training for staff. The new public lands NDOW acquired on Wasley’s watch in numerous counties in the state benefit Nevadans now and into the future.

“The incredible purpose, passion, and professionalism of the employees of NDOW has made this job and my entire career here immensely fulfilling,” Wasley said.

In addition to his work at NDOW, Wasley has served on local, regional, and national conservation-related boards of directors and advisory councils. This includes his service as president, chairman, and executive committee member of both the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) and the Western Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA). He chairs WAFWA’s Sagebrush Executive Oversight Committee, which focuses on management of sagebrushdependent wildlife and their habitat. Wasley serves on the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture’s Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Council, chairs the North American Wetlands Conservation Council, and co-chairs the Landscape Conservation Cooperative Network Council.

In December 2022, Wasley retired from NDOW, but his retirement marks not the end but a new beginning to his lifetime career in conservation. Starting this spring, he will assume the presidency of the Wildlife Management Institute, a professional scientific and educational organization providing expertise to advance wildlife management nationally. WS

MOUNTAIN HUNTER HALL OF FAME: RON RODERICK AND THE LATE RON CAREY

The Mountain Hunter Hall of Fame award is WSF’s most prestigious honor. Induction into the Hall of Fame recognizes a select few who stand as icons in the sheep-hunting community.

To be considered for this award, the nominee must be an accomplished mountain hunter with the highest ethical standards in the pursuit of wild sheep and goat species around the world. They must have also supported conservation with their time, talent, and treasure. The winner is selected by the votes of WSF’s International Awards Committee members and the award’s past recipients. Since the award’s inception, only 13 hunters have been inducted.

While in past years only one winner was selected, this year WSF has broken tradition by recognizing