Is conservation at a crossroads? If challenges to wildlife and the environment are evolving and, in many cases, mounting. If we believe that conservation is everyone's responsibility and that it is a progressive journey rather than a final destination, then we are at a crossroads.  The conservation movement in the early 1900s was born out of crisis. We were taking too much off the land and taking too much for granted. The Environmental Revolution of the 1906s and 70s was another gut check....

Bill Pastorek, author of Dream Rams of British Columbia will soon release his recent and highly anticipate work, Dream Rams of the North. Bill caught the sheep bug early in his life and his chosen career path of self-employment and building a successful gardening business allowed him plenty of time in the mountains to pursue his passion for wild sheep. An avid conservationist, and one who walks the talk of giving his time, talent, and treasure to the resource he loves and the organizations...

Spike Camp is an online community of hunter conservationists. On Wednesday, September 16th Spike Camp founders Chuck and Blake Peeling conducted a live stream podcast featuring WSF Ambassadors Jana Waller Bair and Rachel Ahtila as well as WSF Women Hunt® Committee members Julie Chapman, Brandi Love, and Women Hunt® founder & chair, Renée Thornton. The seven of them talk hunting, conservation, the Wild Sheep family, the Sheep Show®, and the impact hunting has had on their lives. They also...

In this episode of Sheep Fever, co-host Keith Balfourd visits with Mountain Tough Fitness Lab founder Dustin Diefenderfer to learn more about their specific fitness programs for mountain athletes and the new TOUGH SHEEP workout scheduled for the 2025 Sheep Show® in Reno on January 17th. Inspired by modern-day military readiness and NFL training programs, MTNTOUGH designed physical and mental fitness programs geared for the mountain athlete/hunter that better prepared them for the strenuous...

New Chief Operating Officer and Executive VP of Conservation, Corey Mason joined the WSF Team in August, bringing decades of conservation and industry experience.  Spending time on his grandfather’s farm and hunting with his father, Corey quickly grew into a passionate hunter.  Continuing to avidly hunt, but now largely enjoying time afield with his wife and daughter and making family memories. At an early age, Corey desired a career in wildlife conservation. Beginning with undergraduate...

Wild sheep matter, and so does selecting the future leadership of the Wild Sheep Foundation in our upcoming fall 2024 WSF Board of Director elections. Last year, we started something new by introducing the candidates, not only in print with their biographies on our website and mailed ballots, but with brief interviews on this podcast. We have four (4) current director terms expiring April 30, 2025. The Nominating Committee approved five (5) candidates for the fall ballot for these four open...

Acclaimed and award-winning journalist and author, hunter, and sheep hunter Craig Boddington had this to say about WSF Summit Life Member Jim Manley’s first book: “Tracks On A Mountain is one man’s mountain hunting odyssey. Jim Manley and I have climbed some of the same mountains, enjoyed some of the same triumphs, suffered the same disappointments, and so often wondered why we are doing this to ourselves. Jim far exceeded my efforts in North America’s mountains…Wish we’d shared some...

Azyre Gear founder and accomplished sheep hunter Cari Goss’ goal is to inspire and empower women to pursue their hunting and outdoors passions with confidence. A great deal of that confidence comes from functional clothing that fits, keeps one warm, and dry.   For years Cari felt that the hunting apparel industry had overlooked women and that she and others had been left to wear apparel designed for men only later to be modified for women. She also feels that women have been often offered...

Andy Moeckel is well known in the hunting and conservation community as The Flip Flop Guy and his unique cooking style called the Flip Flop. He has turned a culinary technique, that has been passed down for three generations, into a thriving business that sells a full line of sauces, spices, flip flop mops, and even whole bone in Maui Nui Venison legs perfect for Flip Flop.  It all started with his grandfather, Al Giddings shortly after WW II when he got off the ship in San Francisco and...

Sadly, wild sheep numbers are down in many of their ranges. For our thinhorns up North, environmental factors, some of which are beyond short-term human control, have taken a toll in recent years. In other wild sheep ranges, fragmentation, contraction, and loss of habitat, both from a changing climate and land use policies (fire suppression, conifer/shrub encroachment, human footprint, public land grazing allotments, feral horses and burros), as well as disease from exotic and domestic...

There is no question that forces are being placed on our systems, institutions, philosophies, and the science that manages wildlife. Situations and conditions change over time, and adjustments are necessary improvements. Balancing change and maintaining stability is crucial to ensuring the best outcomes for wildlife and people. But this doesn’t appear to be where we’re heading. Sheep Fever co-host Keith Balfourd visits with two guests who keenly understand historical precedents and the...

The Wild Sheep Foundation is growing and is pleased to announce the formation and official charter of the Southeast Chapter of WSF! The mission of the Southeast Chapter of the Wild Sheep Foundation is to build a community of conservationists to raise resources in support of scientific wild sheep management practices and habitat improvement. This is to ensure that future generations will enjoy the healthy populations of North America's sheep herds. We are a volunteer organization dedicated to...

We’re going to Texas in this episode to talk about restoring desert bighorn sheep to a mountain range that hasn’t seen sheep since the early 1900s. Sheep Fever co-host Keith Balfourd visits with Texas Bighorn Sheep Society president Sam Cunningham, WSF’s VP of Conservation Kevin Hurley, and Texas outdoor writer and WSF contributor Chester Moore to discuss the Franklin Mountains State Park desert sheep restoration project. From water guzzler installations awaiting the translocation of 80 sheep...

Jana Waller Bair is the Host and Executive Producer of Skull Bound TV and Skull Bound Chronicles, a hunting and conservation series on Carbon TV that is currently in its 15th season. Jana has been a lifelong hunter and was appointed as a Wildlife Commissioner in Montana in 2021. After serving her term, she moved to Utah, where she resides with her husband and WSF auctioneer, John Bair. Jana is a proud member of the Wild Sheep Foundation as well as many other conservation and hunting...

In this episode of Sheep Fever, we visit with Mark Truax, President and CEO of Pac/West Strategies, to discuss the attempted ban on mountain lion, bobcat, and lynx hunting in Colorado. This ban, proposed through a voter’s ballot initiative and backed by out-of-state animal rights groups, raises important questions. Why mountain lions? Why Colorado? Why a voter’s ballot process? The answers; because it’s winnable. Mark and his company are on the ground in Colorado, trying to prevent this...

Conservation has increasingly become a global topic and a global effort. In this episode, Sheep Fever co-host Keith Balford visits with Shane Mahoney, CEO of Conservation Visions, to discuss various topics, including the growing connectivity between conservation efforts here in North America and those happening beyond our borders. You'll learn how influential our North American Model of Wildlife Conservation is in other countries struggling to do what is best for wildlife and people,...

Preparation, readiness, and confidence are everything, especially on backcountry hunts. WSF recently became the title sponsor for the next three years of  Western Hunt Fest (WHF) events, and WSF’s Women Hunt® program became the title sponsor of the women’s division for the same period. WSF’s Sheep Fever host Gray N. Thornton, and Women Hunt founder and chair Renée Thornton, visit with WHF co-owners Jeffrey DeVaul, Guy Duplantier, and Efren Gonzalez to discuss their motivations behind...

Rifles, cartridges, loads, and bullets–the tools of trade for hunters, competition, and recreational shooters–have advanced rapidly in the past ten years. Sheep Fever host Keith Balfourd sat down with Bozeman local John Snow, Shooting Editor for Outdoor Life, to talk shooting tech and the “Era of Marksmanship” we’re experiencing today. Is Grandpa’s -06 still a player? Are longer projectiles better at longer range, and what about external performance? What’s with the 6.5 craze? Are military...

Since the inaugural WSF Youth Wildlife Conservation Experience (YWCE) in 2012, and with the addition of the Shooting, Hunting & Ethics Education Program (S.H.E.E.P.) in 2013, WSF has impacted the lives of more than 114,000 young men and women introducing them to the wonders of the outdoors. The life skills they have been taught and learned include archery, shooting, game calling, fly tying and casting, tracking, game identification, and conservation principles. The numerous WSF-hosted...

Unlike a traditional story where fathers, grandfathers, mothers, and grandmothers handed down generations of stories, hunting locations and secret spots, techniques, ethics, ethos, and even weapons, Blood Origins Founder Robbie Kröger’s story is a little different. He had everything of the hunting life given to him, all but the personal experience of it. He was surrounded by the tools, the trophies, the stories, and even a letter from his grandfather telling him that the hunt was “In My...

Conflicts over land use, conservation vs. preservation, sustainable use vs. protectionism, rural vs. urban values and politics, historical vs. contemporary knowledge, my science vs. your science, and even what constitutes an indigenous person are topics covered in this fast-paced conversation between award-winning filmmaker Tom Opre and Sheep Fever co-host Gray Thornton. Opre’s latest film, The Last Keeper, dives into the history and lives of Game Keepers in the Scottish Highlands and the...

Sheep Fever co-host Gray Thornton joins WSF Director Emilio Rangel, founder and co-owner of Rancho La Palmosa in Coahuila, Mexico, Dr. Sam Cunningham, Texas Bighorn Society President, Froylan Hernandez, Desert Bighorn Sheep Program Director with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, and Jim Breck Bean of High West Outfitters to discuss aoudad as a big game animal, their value to Texas landowners, and their impact on the health and viability of desert bighorn sheep.  Aoudad were...

The ban on the use of lead shot for hunting waterfowl was phased-in starting with the 1987-1988 hunting season. The ban became nationwide in 1991. Over the concerns of lead fragments in gut piles and the non-recovered game being ingested by other wildlife, namely scavenging birds, some states now require non-lead ammunition for big game hunting, and pressure is being placed on the USFWS to make non-lead the norm on all National Wildlife Refuges. Chris Parish, President & CEO of The...

Join Sheep Fever co-host Gray N. Thornton for a fascinating and educational conversation on wild sheep predation with four career wildlife biologists with a combined ~180 years of agency and NGO experience. Kevin Hurley, WSF Vice President of Conservation, Kurt Alt, WSF Conservation Director – International Programs, Tom Lohuis, Dall’s Sheep Research Biologist, for the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, and Eric Rominger, (Retired) Bighorn Sheep Biologist, with New Mexico Department of...