Hello friends, fall is here in all of its glory; football, falling leaves, and best of all, hunting season. I plan to
share most of my days in the fi eld hunting with my kids. Their excitement for the hunt is contagious, and it
inspires me to work harder and to give more to wildlife conservation.

We made significant progress over the summer at our annual strategic meeting. The MTWSF Board dedicated
a weekend in July to review the progress we made last year, plan for the next fi ve years, and establish an
operational budget for the current fi scal year. We made some serious progress on our near term goals and
chipped away at our larger vision over the last year. One of the signifi cant milestones was increasing revenue
through membership growth, license plate sales, and investments. Equally important was making operation
improvements to our accounting systems to facilitate better fi nancial planning. While these eff orts were not
specifi cally aligned to on-the-ground work, we are clearing a path for the bigger goals we have on the horizon.

The vision is to expand the population and distribution of bighorn sheep in Montana for viewing enjoyment
and hunting opportunity. The path to accomplishing this vision includes outreach eff orts to mitigate disease
transmission, advocacy to expand opportunity of huntable populations, participation in transportation planning to
reduce wild sheep collisions, and fi nancial support for habitat improvement projects.

We are aware of the setbacks that several of our herds are experiencing. While it is frustrating that our state herds
are not at their full potential, we are confi dent that with your support, we will achieve growth of our herds in the
coming years. Later in this newsletter, you will read about our successful fundraising eff orts for a land acquisition
to protect a key lambing area. It is projects like this that will move the needle closer to our goal.

MTWSF held Board of Director elections in August. Before I share the results, Don Patterson retired from his directorship and I would like to thank him for his service to this organization. We had three openings this year. Alex Russell will return for his second term, Mark Westfall was elected to his first term (after mid-term appointment), and Riley Pearson was elected to his first term. We have an outstanding group of volunteers on the board and I am thrilled with the energy and enthusiasm they all bring.

We are starting to shift our focus to planning for the 33rd Annual Banquet and Fundraiser, which will be held in Bozeman, MT on March 7th and 8th, 2025. We need volunteers and donors to help out with planning and execution of the event. If you can help, please contact myself or Ty
Stubblefield.

I look forward to seeing you all at our 33rd annual banquet. Until then, I wish you all the very best this fall. I hope you enjoy time spent with family and friends this season as you make memories in the field and gather for the holidays.