Message from the President

Happy New Year……What a terrific way to start the year as this past January 3 & 4th the DWR and UFNAWS volunteers brought in the new year capturing 55 California bighorns and transplanting them on Newfoundland & Stansbury Mountains. 40 of these sheep were ram’s that were taken off Antelope Island to help reduce the high density of rams from the Island.

This will strengthen the existing herds and provide additional hunting opportunity in the very near future. A special thanks goes to the DWR, Utah State Parks, Pathfinder Helicopters for coordinating and organizing this special event.

It has been a very successful year for sheep in Utah as you can see by the population estimatesthat the DWR came out with. The total bighorn population estimates are 5550 sheep statewide.  This is a remarkable accomplishment considering there were less than 800 a short 15 years ago.  What a great story to tell our grandkids and hopefully provide them with additional hunting opportunities as we continue to grow our sheep herds in Utah.

Congratulations to all who had the good fortune to hunt sheep this year and the photos you have sent in. The following pages of photos tell of the hard earned reward of harvesting a sheep and the special kind of person it takes to accomplish these demanding hunts.
 
I want to personally invite you to our 18th annual banquet/fundraiser this year on April 12, 2008 at the South Towne Expo. We hope to set a few records and have acquired 2 new auction permits. The first is the famed Alaska TOK Dall sheep permit that was awarded to Utah FNAWS through an application  process where we were chosen from among many other applicants.  The other is the Baja Biosphere Desert sheep permit in Baja Mexico that National FNAWS has given us the opportunity to sell.

Thanks for supporting Utah FNAWS ……We cannot do it without you.

Happy Hunting.

Ryan Foutz