January 30, 2012. Latest newsletter (February 2012) now available for viewing!
2012 Custom Rifle Project
 January 7, 2012. Every year we put together a custom built rifle for the annual fundraiser. The challenge of course, is to build something special that everyone will want and still not invest sheep money. We have had great donors every year that help with this project. Some of these donors have given parts or labor and some have given discounts, but whatever they have supplied, is always greatly appreciated. This year is no different, except that now our web site and newsletter have room for more articles. The Board has decided to try even harder at giving recognition to those donors. We have started to list donors and links to their websites on our web site.
This year’s rifle is a custom built .300 Win. mag. built by Joe Starnes “The Longshot” out of Conrad. We normally have to buy a rifle to get the action, then auction off the remaining parts. This year we found a great new bunch of friends at “Defiance Machine” of Columbia Falls, whom graciously supplied one of their superior actions. They even applied for and received a special serial number for this rifle, MTWSF2012.
Dan Lija has been very big in helping us with this annual project, once again stepped up, with a superb Lilja barrel. Now while Joe is our gunsmith this year, he helped keep the ball rolling along with contacts. Former Board member Dan Spicher continued to make the needed contacts, and acquired the rest of the donations. This rifle is now fitted with a McMillan stock and topped with a Nightforce scope. Talk about quality components, you can’t find a better list to work with.
Joe is assembling it as we read this. Now to really put the frosting on the cake, he is custom loading some ammunition for this beauty. He has even offered shooting and site in instruction at his range. I know that I will be buying some tickets on this one. We will continue to write features on our donors and the projects that Mt. W.S.F. becomes involved with. I wish you luck in the drawing, but I reserve a little of the luck for myself. |
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FY 2012 Budget Bill a Mixed Bag for Wild Sheep
December 20, 2011, Cody, Wyoming. Bighorn sheep conservation got a mixed bag in the year-end spend-ing bill (H.R. 2055 - FY12 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012.)
On the downside, House and Senate appropriators stopped the U.S. Forest Service from making decisions or taking actions benefitting wild sheep restoration and enhancement if such action reduces the number of domestic sheep allowed to graze on select public land allotments. On the other hand, the new law gives state wildlife managers more say in bighorn conservation and recognizes that temporal and spatial separation should continue “unless or until there is no conflict with bighorn sheep management.” Such separation is necessary for the survival of wild sheep, due to disease transmission from domestic sheep.
“While disappointed with Congressional action which delays implementation of a duly-rendered NEPA decision on the Payette National Forest, we appreciate recognition by Congress of the legitimate concern and often deadly impact to wild sheep, when domestic sheep and bighorn sheep interact,” stated Gray N. Thornton, President and CEO of the Wild Sheep Foundation.
“Fortunately for wild sheep, Congress backed off from a domestic sheep industry proposed five-year ban on wild sheep conservation efforts on federal lands to a one-year restriction. This result would not have been possible with-out the support of tens of thousands of sportsmen/conser-vationists who urged Congress to work to achieve effective spatial and temporal separation between wild and domestic sheep. In our view, and with their action, Congress has now recognized and elevated this issue” added Thornton. Full Press Release.
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