The Oregon Wild Sheep Foundation Grant-In-Aid committee received and reviewed five applications requesting funding in 2018. The committee recommended that all five be approved for all or a portion of the funds requested, and the board agreed. Many of these projects are partially funded by OR Wild Sheep Foundation in conjunction with other organizations and/or agencies, which helps to stretch our dollars.

Project # 18-126: $5,000 went to Francis Casirer, Coordinator for Hells Canyon Bighorn sheep project. This will contin- ue disease research by capturing and testing for movi shedders in Hells Canyon.

Project # 18-127: $5,000 went to Tom Besser and Washington State University for comparative analysis of bighorn sheep movement patterns across subspecies and spatial domains across all western states. With a goal of better un- derstanding contact and pathogen transmission risk between bighorns and domestic sheep.

Project # 18-128: $5,000 went to Rob Spann and Oregon State University for connectivity study of California bighorn sheep in Oregon, Nevada and Idaho. This should show implications for disease and genetic management.

Project #18-129: $5,000 went to Katie Pierson of ODFW for Lower Deschutes and John Day fire restoration. This in- cludes reseeding and spraying to increase forage potential through establishment of native and desirable grasses and forbs.

Project #18-130: $15,000 went to Larry Jacobs, representing Oregon for Tri State Hells Canyon Initiative area. Pilot project for outreach position to work with small farm flock owners of domestic sheep to explain and reduce risk of dis- ease conflict between domestic and wild sheep.

Funding by OR Wild Sheep Foundation for these projects in 2018 totals $40,000. We continue to fulfill our goal of putting and keeping Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goats on the mountain.

Article by Don South

Oregon FNAWS

March 30, 2019

President's Message

Oregon FNAWS

March 30, 2019

I hope everyone had a good holiday and are looking forward to good
year. OR Wild Sheep Foundation had it’s Winter Board meeting the first weekend on
January. We were able to support some great projects through our Grant in Aid pro- gram, elect officers, plan for our 20th Annual Fundraiser, purchase a couple great items for our Banquet Raffles, welcome a new Board member and schedule some good hands on projects. I appreciate all of the hard work of the board members and their support. When you take a look at the list of our upcoming events and read about some of the ones that have already passed you will see that we have a very busy first part of the year planned. There are things that we will be doing that are not on the list such as working on the South East Oregon Regional Management Plan, Sheep cap- tures and continuing to promote sound management and access to our public lands.

Our Banquet Committee is working hard to make this year’s Fundraiser another greatevent. One of the highlights of the event will be raffling off the Governors tag for Rocky Mountain Goats. This will be the fourth year of this tag being raffled off and hopefully another record price will be set this year with those funds going directly to the Rocky Mountain Goat fund. We will have other quality items in our raffles and auctions at our event. Please consider attending and make your reservations early.

This year’s Sheep and Goat Workshop will again be held at the Dalles Readiness Cen-ter on July 20. I really enjoy this event because of the chance to see and meet thisyear’s group of lucky people who drew Sheep and Goat tags. We also have the moun-tain hunters rendezvous after the workshop at Deschutes River Recreation Area and Summer Board Meeting the next day.

I hope to see you at one of our events or projects and Good Luck to everyone in the draws this year!

Oregon FNAWS

March 9, 2019

2019 Moose Survey Completed

Oregon FNAWS

March 9, 2019

Pat Mathews, ODFW biologist, completed a helicopter moose survey in the Wenaha and West Sled Springs Units in late January. A total of 13 moose, including 4 cows, 2 calves, and 7 bulls were located. The same number were located last year. In ad- dition, a dead moose was found that had been partially consumed by wolves.

The Wenaha wolf pack range includes the moose survey area and last sum- mer, a Umatilla Forest biologist locat- ed a moose that had been freshly killed by wolves. Moose numbers ap- pear to be dropping in northeast Ore- gon from the 36 observed in 2009. Two additional bulls were known to have been taken in 2018. One was poached in the Chesnimnus area and the other taken by a Nez Perce tribal member in the Wenaha Unit. These losses are unfortunate and jeoprodizethe survival of Oregon’s small moose population.
The Wallowa District biologists were able to capture an 8-month old bull and radio-collar it. There are now six radio collared moose in the Wenaha and Sled Springs Units. The collars were purchased by Oregon FNAWS and the Oregon Hunters Association. Moose advocates in Oregon need to be concerned about the apparent decline in the states small moose herd. Sur- rounding states have seen declines in moose numbers in areas that contain thriving wolf populations. In this writers view, a moose transplant needs to be done to bolsterOregon’s small Shira’s moose herd and provide additional genetic diversity to the small population.

Article by Vic Coggins