Greetings to all of our Montana Wild Sheep Foundation (MTWSF) supporters. Spring time brings warmer weather and new lambs on the landscape. 2021 has already been extremely rewarding for MTWSF as we have been involved in several sheep captures and transplants in Montana. The transplants were successful and we renewed sheep herds in the Tendoys and Little Belt Mountains. We look forward to January 2022 when a transplant in the Bridger Mountains is planned.

Our first virtual fundraiser in Butte this past February was a great success. I owe an enormous thank you to our board for pulling together to put on the event. Again Brian Solan, DJ Berg, and Levi Bowler shouldered most of the technical burden to pull off the event. Thank you to all of you who tuned in and donated generously to help us make a profit. The proceeds from this past fundraiser will be used to assist in several habitat projects, scientific studies, and transplant projects coming soon.

With the loosening of Covid restrictions, I look forward to more in-person MTWSF events so we can all connect on a personal level. Much prosperity be to you all this spring and summer.

Shane Clouse

Montana Wild Sheep Foundation President
shane@shaneclouse.com
(406) 370-4487

The “Madison Monarch”-Sheep 2020

Story by: Matt Clyde

The spring of 2020 brought an immense amount of uncertainty for many people due to the nature of how our country was reacting to the introduction of COVID-19. I was no different in wondering what the year would bring, at least until I read the results of the 2020 sheep drawing here in Montana. I did a triple take while staring at the computer just to make sure that I truly read correctly that I was one of the 6 lucky people to draw a Madison range sheep permit. With all of the other uncertainties the year was likely to bring, one thing was not, that I was going to dedicate my entire fall to this once in a lifetime opportunity (a term my wife seems to think gets used rather loosely around here).

Once I had the tag, I began the heavy digging and reached out to some guys I knew that had held the tag in prior years and had put in a substantial amount of time learning the unit. Because I own my own company, I have a little flexibility with scheduling work and decided that I would spend the summer working as much as I could so that I could take the time off work in the fall when I could actually be hunting. Scouting was a little less important to me than hunting and with the info I had been given from the biologist and prior hunters, I felt confident that it was going to just be a matter of time in finding the right ram….

Read the whole article in our WildSheep Newsletter, Summer 2021.

Dad’s Final Hunt

Story by: Chase Bouma

It’s easy to take for granted the time you get to spend with family. Luckily for us, we knew this would most likely be a once in a lifetime experience getting to finally go on a sheep hunt, so we cherished every moment!

It was a typical Sunday family lunch get together when we sat down at the table and Dad threw an envelope in front of my brother and I. As we began to read the letter, we realized that after putting in for 20 plus years in over 6 different states, our Dad was finally blessed with a sheep tag in Montana!

As you may have guessed, the celebration began along with the research and scouting. Countless hours were spent pouring over maps and reaching out to people to try and acquire as much information as possible to raise our chances of having a great, successful hunt. Including a trip over to scout and put eyes on the country we would be hunting.

Read the whole article in our WildSheep Newsletter, Summer 2021.