We have met many great candidates over the last few months and are blown away by the response we have gotten. We have selected a new Executive Director and I am excited to announce that Ty Stubblefield has accepted the position! We will introduce him to you at the banquet and in the next newsletter. I would be remiss to also not to give a nod to Brian Solan for all of his leadership. Thank you, Brian, we are forever grateful.
With 2022 in the rearview mirror, it is nice to look back at our accomplishments. I can confidently say that we moved the needle for wild sheep in 2022. This organization advocated for and funded many projects this past year. I am incredibly proud of those efforts, and you should be too. Your support is the only way we can continue to fund and provide advocacy for Montana’s wild sheep. With your continued support, we will continue to champion efforts across the state, like those in the Highland’s, Tendoy’s, and Little Belt’s to restore Montana’s bighorn sheep herds.
D.J. Berg
Montana Wild Sheep Foundation President
dj@montanawsf.org
(406) 366-1849
Highlights from this Issue
African Dreams
Story by: Steve Ahmann
sportsman film series at the Mayo Civic Auditorium. We would watch the likes of Fred Bear, Curt Gowdy, Peter Capstick, and others whose names escape me, hunt big game mainly across North America and Africa. I would dream that someday I could do that. I spent the majority of my adult life living in the western states, I have been fortunate enough to hunt for most of the western big game species and fulfill that portion of the dream and the Montana Wild Sheep Foundation helped fulfill the African side of it.
Read the whole article in our Wild Sheep Newsletter, Winter 2023.
Dog Separation Workshop
Led by Working Dogs for Conservation
by Kurt Alt
Conservation Director, Montana and International Programs, Wild Sheep Foundation
efforts with Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C) to use dogs to address bighorn sheep management needs. We reported on efforts to use dogs to detect M.ovi. We also introduced another line of work, using dogs to aid in the separation between wild and domestic sheep. The Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) and Montana Wild Sheep Foundation (MTWSF) supported a meeting on 18 November 2022, to explore the use of dogs to aid in separation concerns between wild and domestic sheep. Below is a brief synopsis of this workshop from Pete Coppolillo, WD4C: ‘Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C) led a 1-day workshop, November 18, 2023, on the use of dogs
for maintaining spatial separation between domestic and wild sheep. Lamb and wool producers, along with representatives from Montana Wild Sheep Foundation, The Montana Wool Growers Association (MTWGA), Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, Montana State University, the National Center for Appropriate Technology, came together to discuss current uses of dogs, breed, husbandry and training differences, and potential avenues for future work. Overall, the group agreed that livestock guardian dogs have promising potential for keeping wild and domestic sheep separate as a means for limiting disease transmission. The group also highlighted ways to minimize or remove barriers to keeping livestock guardian dogs, so that more sheep producers can successfully integrate them into their operations. A workshop report and proposals for future work is being prepared.” This effort is just one part of Montana initiatives between MTWSF and MTWGA to find productive and collaborative ways to develop on the ground tools that can help address mutual concerns regarding domestic and wild sheep. Montana Wild Sheep Foundation is expecting to receive a grant proposal for work in this area in the very near future.
