Delta Business Journal

Cody, Wyoming and Cleveland, Mississippi may seem like two different worlds, however they do have something in common. One of the country's most prestigious wildlife organizations is located in Cody and the president of this 6,000 member organization lives in Cleveland.

Elected this past April, Leland Speakes is the new president of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep. The Foundation for North American Wild Sheep is a highly-respected non-profit organization with members from around the country and world whose purpose is to promote and enhance increasing populations of indigenous wild sheep on the North American continent and to safeguard against the decline or the extinction of such species. The Foundation also funds programs for professional management of sheep populations. Some notable members are Chuck Yeager, Bob Peterson of the Peterson outdoor publications, Bill Ruger, founder of Ruger Arms, and Dr. Red Duke. Governor Fordice is also a member.

For over twenty years the Foundation has been the leading voice in support of North AmericaÕs four wild sheep species (Dall, Stone, Rocky Mountain, and Desert) and Speakes has been associated with the organization from the beginning.

I started off with the Foundation at its very first convention which was held in Memphis and I have been active within the Foundation every since, said Speakes.

Speakes, is an avid wild sheep hunter and has harvested each of the four species, which is known as a grand slam. This accomplishment took ten years to achieve. At the time, Speakes was only the 132nd person in the world to accomplish this.

Sheep hunting is the epitome of fair chase hunting, says Speakes. Sheep live in the highest reaches of the mountains and people that hunt for anything less than sheep never get up there. One of the things that I think attracts people to sheep hunting is the beauty of the mountains. People that hunt in the valley never get to see this. A great deal of climbing and walking is involved in this sport and it can tax your body heavily.

Speakes says that hunters leave the main road on a horse and are gone for three weeks. Sleeping in a tent on the ground is required and hunters subsist on what they can carry on their horse.

In the north country in September, daytime is just about 24 hours and you find yourself hunting until 11:00 at night, says Speakes.

Speakes, a real estate broker/appraiser, spends up to three hours a day working on matters concerning the Foundation and will spend several days each month in Cody working in the Foundation's office.

The Foundation membership meets once a year at their national convention usually in Reno, Nevada.

At our first convention in Memphis we raised $40,000.00 which we thought was a lot of money. At last year' convention we raised $3.5 million in two days and we do this by auctioning off things that people give to us like hunts, fishing trips, art, and other things, said Speakes. After the cost of the convention is paid, the remainder of this money is spent on our grant and aid process that we have. People that have sheep projects all over the continent will make applications to us requesting financial help. We spend a great deal of time going over these applications deciding which ones we will fund and we usually spend all of the money that we made at the convention on these projects, which would include things like transplants. For example; if you have an area that has too many sheep, we will go in and trap these sheep and move them into areas where the sheep population is low. We are funding a relocation project right now in New Mexico where we are trapping 45 lambs and ewes and are going to put them in three locations where there are remnant groups. Then we're going to trap six rams and we're going to put two rams in each one of these groups. This is a good program because it supplements the herd and gives you new bloodlines.

Partially through the efforts of the sheep Foundation, there are more sheep in North America today than there were 25 years ago, says Speakes. DBJ

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