It has definitely been a long winter with spring slow to arrive. We’ve gone from fi res in 2017 to inundation of snow in winter, to rain and massive flooding in spring. Mother Nature likes to keep us guessing and in total awe of her raw power! I am constantly amazed at the resilience of our Montana wildlife and their ability to proliferate no matter the weather.

As tough as our wild sheep are they still face some daunting challenges with habitat and disease issues and that is why Montana Wildsheep Foundation (MTWSF) continues to champion the causes of wild sheep. Without our efforts, Montana would not have a huntable population of Giant Montana Rams. Our March fundraiser in Bozeman was an enormous success. We had a packed house for our Friday expo show, film festival and spirits tasting! A good time was had by all. There were many stories told and many friendships fostered. On Saturday, we had a full slate of excellent speakers leading up to the banquet and auction. The fundraiser, banquet and auction were our largest grossing and largest netting fundraiser to date! Your MTWSF board plans to use that money to preserve more quality habitat and hunting access to wild sheep. The money will also be used to fund effective projects and disease research for wild sheep. This is the third year that our banquet was “SOLD OUT” so we are going to The Big Horn Resort in Billings on March 8-9,2019. The Big Horn Resort has banquet seating to accommodate our growing organization.

Thank you to all of you who donated money, time and products to make our 2018 MTWSF fundraiser a resounding success. I personally owe a big thank you to our MTWSF Board and Banquet Committee. Jeff Mortensen, Tom Grimes and Cory Pearsol were our eyes, ears, and enforcement on the ground in Bozeman that absolutely made the event successful. DJ Berg, Grant Winn, Ray Vinkey, Max Bauer, Levi Bowler and Justin Spring were on site to put together all of the details for the fundraiser banquet and auction. Thank you as well to all the wives and volunteers who give selflessly each year to MTWSF. It cannot be understated how much Brian Solan, our “Volunteer Executive Director” means to MTWSF. He has created an extremely organized and enormously fun template for our events that makes them much easier to implement.

I am humbled to be in the company of our all volunteer board and MTWSF membership of honorable men and women. I strongly believe the efforts of MTWSF have helped create a Montana Wild Sheep population that gave us two new world record rams and several other top 10’s for 2017/18. Please help us keep that trend moving forward. It was a great pleasure to serve you this past year and I look forward to sharing more MTWSF successes in 2018-2019.

Shane Clouse

Montana Wild Sheep Foundation President

shane@shaneclouse.com | (406) 370-4487

Big Horns on the Missouri River

Story by: Tom Madden

The summer of 2017 I finally drew the tag of a lifetime. It would be my first Missouri River Bighorn Sheep hunt in the coveted 482 hunting district on the south side of the river, north of Winifred Montana. I have been applying for a sheep tag for 42 years, 30 of which were for HD 482 with 16 bonus points.

On September 21st we loaded our camping gear into my jet boat at the Stafford Ferry. We then embarked on a 20 mile run down river to where our base camp would be located at Sturgeon Island . . . 

Read the whole article in our June 2018 Newsletter.

2016 Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Hunt

Reprint Courtesy of Fair Chase Magazine

Story by: Justing Spring, Director of Big Game Records

The history of the island, which has produced the largest Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in recorded history, has a past that parallels much of the history of the American West and its wildlife—at least in relative modern times starting in the mid-1800s. The majority of Flathead Lake, including Wild Horse Island, lies within the boundaries of the Flathead Indian Reservation that was created under the Hellgate Treaty of 1855. The origins of the naming of the island are disputed; however, the first known reference appears in an 1854 journal. One of the stories is that a tribal member had some horses stolen by the Blackfeet; he then stole an band of them back and placed them on Wild Horse Island for his children in an attempt to prevent them from being stolen back.

Read the whole article in our June 2018 Newsletter.