Conservationist John Muir, found occasion to write about the wild sheep of the Sierra Nevada in the course of writing about the natural history of his belove "Range of Light." In 1894, a full chapter of his book "Mountains of California" is devoted to mountain sheep:

The wild sheep ranks highest among the animal mountaineers of the Sierra. Possessed of keen sight and scent, and strong limbs, he dwells secure amid the loftiest summits, leaping unscathed from crag to crag, up and down the fronts of giddy precipices, crossing foaming torrents and slopes of frozen snow, exposed to the wildest storms, yet maintaining a brave, warm life, and developing from generation to generation in perfect strength and beauty.

As a prolific writer, Muir clearly recognized that conservation is inextricably bound with appreciation. Similarly the mission of Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation includes education. This takes a variety of forms in addition to publications. Foundation President, Dr. John Wehausen, and Foundation Secretary/Treasurers and biologist Karl Chang, have taught a field seminar on Sierra bighorn offered through the Mono Lake Committee and Yosemite Association for the past several years. This has been no small undertaking. Because of the difficulty finding bighorn in reasonably accessable terrain during the summer months, viewing bighorn sheep is a challenge. In recent years, however, participants were able to see sheep in the mountains above the Mono Basin. Check the Yosemite Association website and the Mono Lake Committee web sites for details or call them at (760) 647-6595 if interested.

Other venues for widening the interest in bighorn sheep have included scholarly activities. Bighorn sheep were a topic featured in two conservation biology symposiums held in two successive summers at the Crooked Creek lab of White Mountain Research Station. These sessions were open to a select number of graduate students from each of the University of California campuses. The conservation history and current challenges of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep were the primary emphases and the presenters have included biologists from Inyo National Forest and the California Department of Fish and Game, as well as a professional lion tracker from Wildlife Services, a conservation activist from the Wilderness Society, and our president, John Wehausen.

All of these individuals have played key roles in the conservation of Sierra bighorn. Emphasis was placed on the political and biological complexity of this conservation challenge and the crucial need for many individuals from different arenas to work together.