Presidents Message

I would like to thank all of you for making our Kalispell fundraiser the best we have held in the 16 years of being a chapter. Mike Menke and his committee did a great job making this the best of the best.

It is that time of the year once again. We have 3 board positions open as of Sept 1st. Jack Chambers will be termed out. Tom Grimes has chosen not to run because he is the current fundraiser chair for our upcoming Banquet in 09. Steve Kline is planning on running again. If you are interested in running for the board this is the requirement. You must be a member in good standing for 1 year as of September 1, 2008.  Second you would need to let one of us on the board know that you plan to run.  We would then make sure that we nominate you. Third you need to do a short bio of yourself that will be printed in an upcoming flyer and sent to the membership for voting in July. All ballots will have to be returned in August and counted so new board members can be seated in September.

The board has decided to forgo the summer picinic this year because of the high price of fuel. Save your fuel money for hunting season.

This has been an extremely hard winter on our wildlife here in western Montana.  The winter just does not seem to want to let go. It's June and we are still running temperatures well below normal and rain and snow continuing in the high elevations. This winter is compared to the winter of 1996/97 when we awoke to 4 ft of snow in our yard on Christmas morning. The wildlife in northwest Montana suffered greatly that year as the snow hung on and we had a real late spring.  Little did we know when the (instate Bighorn Sheep transplants) were planned and executed that the snows would once again come in great proportion.  The snow in northwest Montana continued almost daily once the sheep were in place.  In Libby Montana about 3 ft of snow covered the sheep wintering area. Many of them simply could not survive and did not. I talked to the other area biologist in the same general area. He told me that the heavy snow up there had also greatly impacted the deer and elk herds. When he did his spring aerial surveys he only could come up with 14 fawns per 100 does and 11 calves per 100 cow elk.  This was in the extreme northwestern part of Montana from the Heron area up through the Libby area. This is the same area the sheep occupy. Even in my area of the Bitterroot valley south of Missoula to the Idaho line our wildlife had a hard winter. Here besides the snow we have had to deal with all the wolves that have impacted our biggame herds. The important thing to remember here is that all the planning we do can be changed by (Mother Nature) and there is not anything we can do about it.

Montana FNAWS is pleased to announce that we have a raffle hunt to offer for Oct 2009 in British Columbia. The hunt is with (Pelly Lake Wilderness Outfitters LTD). The hunt will take place in early Oct. Date of pickup is Oct 3rd in Prince George and return to Prince george Oct 13th. You will be allowed to hunt 2 of the 3 species listed on the hunt. They are Moose, Montana Goat, and Montana Caribou. The third one if added will be on a trophy fee. We will sell 200 tickets @ $60.00 each and draw the winner at our Bozeman fundraiser on March 13th 2009. For further information go to our website @ www.montanafnaws.org for ticket purchase information. Check out Pelly Lake Wilderness Outfitters Ltd @ www.comehunt.com or contact the Montana FNAWS Board of Directors listed in the publication for additional information. Owner operator Dennis LeVeque lives in Cascade Montana and can be reached @ 800-554-7244 We would like to thank Tom Grimes for arranging this special hunt.

Montana FNAWS has another great raffle hunt to be done in 2010. This is a rare opportunity and could be your hunt of a lifetime. Imagine going on a 14 day (1x1) Grizzly hunt. While on that hunt you will also be given the opportunity to harvest a (Stone Sheep) for an additional $10,000.00 trophy fee. So you could win the Grizzly hunt and take the Stone Sheep for $10,000.00. Stone Sheep hunts normally book for $28,000.00 to $35,000.00 current prices. This hunt will take place with (Christina Falls Outfitters) in British Columbia (o/a Sept 6th-21st 2010.  The hunt will be raffled off at our 2010 fundraiser. This gives you a chance to plan ahead for a great opportunity. We will sell 200 tickets for $100.00 each. For further information on this hunt go to our website @ www.montanafnaws.org for ticket purchase information.

Check out www.christinafalls.com or contact the Montana FNAWS Board of Directors listed in the publication for additional information.  Owner operator is Mike Kabanuk from Cochrane AB. This hunt was arranged through Troy & Lori Ginn (International Outdoor Consultants) 1-800-808-4868. Troy and Lori are members and long time supporters of Montana FNAWS. (Should we sell out all 200 tickets before our march 09 fundraiser at Bozeman we will draw the winner at that time).

Happy hunting

Tom Powers