2022 BC Wild Sheep Summit

BC Sheep Summit Goals

1. Bring all interested stake and titleholders together creating a collaborative approach to tackle present wild sheep challenges.  These entities include First Nations, government, guide outfitters, industry, academia, the scientific community, funding partners and conservation organizations.
2. Establish a baseline of overall wild sheep population numbers including trends for each region across the province.
3. Rely on scientific and traditional knowledge to accurately identify specific limiting factors to wild sheep which may include herd-health, predation, habitat, disease or other issues.
4. Provide region-specific working groups to identify the leading challenges to wild sheep and more importantly provide action plans that address these concerns.
5. While threats to wild sheep will be identified and action plans generated, a long-term goal is to create a conduit for enhanced communication between all stake and titleholders to ensure these action plans are implemented.  We envision providing these action plans to the newly established Together For Wildlife Regional Roundtables and pressing for accountability that they are carried out in line with the S.M.A.R.T. goals principal.
6. Select media representatives have been invited with the goal of promoting the conservation efforts our community is making to ensure the sustainability of wild sheep in British Columbia.

BC Sheep Summit Synopsis

The symposium will be a two and half day event focused on wild sheep concerns, and sustainability in BC. Agenda items will include Inventory, Disease & Health, Harvest, Access, and Habitat concerns.

Wednesday evening will start with our opening ceremonies, and welcome messages from WSSBC President Korey Green, local First Nation prayer & presentation, Gray Thornton from the Wild Sheep Foundation, Mike Morris MLA (tentative), Michael Burwash the Associate Director of Wildlife, with the Ministry of Forests, Scott Ellis from GOABC, and WSSBC Vice-President Chris Barker. Finally Alex Grzybowski our professional facilitator will lead us through the next two days.

Thursday morning will start with a presentation from Bill Jex, provincial mountain goat, and wild sheep specialist, addressing five key questions that everyone will be tackling throughout the summit. We will have a series of presentations by regional biologists addressing wild sheep issues by region. Following this, we will have provincial veterinarian Dr. Caeley Thacker give us a presentation on disease & health concerns throughout the province. Followed by a short break, we will have a presentation on Co-management by Hunter Lampreau, and Tara Szkorupa. Associate Director of Wildlife Michael Burwash will walk us through governments role, and perspective followed by Facilitator Alex Grzybowski breaking us out into groups to address the major concerns brought up by Bill Jex earlier in the day. Thursday evening will conclude with catered dinner, and private screening of the award winning documentary film “Transmission” which focuses on the domestic-wild sheep Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae conflict here in BC.

Friday, we will dive back into our working groups to determine action items that can be taken away from the BC Sheep Summit and vaulted forward to help the viability of wild sheep populations in BC through measurable action items, and potential future project ideas. We are extremely excited about this event, and really looking forward to getting everybody in a room together with one common goal….”Wild Sheep Forever”

Please RSVP to kstelter@wildsheepsociety.com if interested or share within your organization to those that would support. We will have an attendance limit so please keep that in mind. If you have a presentation you would like to share please let us know.