Bighorn Tag Lottery Nets Disease Research Dollars

One major source of funding for bighorn sheep health research in Idaho received a large boost with this yearÁ_s bighorn tag lottery. Ticket sales brought in about twice as much money as last year with the first opportunity for a lottery tag holder to hunt the fabled Unit 11 in Hells Canyon. About $78,000 was raised this year in the lottery. The bighorn sheep lottery tag was approved by the Idaho Legislature in 1992. The luck of the draw went to Thomas A. Campbell of St. James, New York. Two alternates were drawn in case Campbell cannot use the bighorn tag. Both alternates came from outside Idaho. Winning tickets were drawn July 31 by Fish and Game Commissioner Don Clower, himself a member of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep (FNAWS). The drawing was attended by officers and members of the Idaho Chapter of FNAWS as well as Fish and Game staff including researchers from the wildlife laboratory at Caldwell. Commissioner Clower praised the work FNAWS is doing, noting that the organizationÁ_s work and money go directly to Á¤on the groundÁ¬ projects for the benefit of bighorns. Idaho FNAWS members sell lottery tickets throughout the year for this annual drawing that entitles the winner to hunt a bighorn in any of this yearÁ_s open sheep hunts in Idaho. The chapter can retain up to 25 percent of the money to fund administrative costs such as printing tickets and promoting the lottery. Proceeds of the lottery go toward research into bighorn diseases done at the wildlife health laboratory in Caldwell. IdahoÁ_s work in wild sheep diseasesãoan effort involving Fish and Game researchers and university scientists with funding help from FNAWSãois aimed at new knowledge about problems with wildlife health that have frustrated sheep advocates for years. This pioneering research may one day be applied to bighorn populations across the west. The Idaho FNAWS Chapter has raised more than $270,417 since 1992 in research money through the annual bighorn sheep tag lottery. The other Idaho bighorn tag that FNAWS auctions at its annual convention drew $47,500 this year. Most of that money goes toward the Hells Canyon Initiative aimed at bringing back bighorn herds in one of the largest sheep habitats left in the U.S. This is the first time the lottery money has exceeded the amount raised with the auction tag. The lottery, where a single ticket goes for $10, offers a chance for hunters of more average incomes to win one of the coveted tags.