We’re excited to pass along this invitation from the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation:
The Foundation will host a fundraiser, “500 & Rising,” on Saturday, February 16, 2013 at the Mountain Light Gallery in Bishop (106 S Main Street). You’re invited to an evening of fine art, light refreshments, conversation about conservation, and a chance to win terrific prizes via raffle and silent auction. John Wehausen, the leading authority on Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, will lead a bighorn tracking field trip the day after the party on Sunday, February 17. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation website or Sage to Summit.
The fundraiser will celebrate the completion of the first mural in artist Jane Kim’s revolutionary Migrating Mural project. Kim, a science illustrator, plans to raise awareness about wildlife conservation through a series of murals painted along migration corridors shared by people and endangered animals. The first chapter of the Migrating Mural will showcase Sierra bighorn in four sites along Highway 395, in the shadow of the bighorns’ home range. By bringing this rare and magnificent animal into the public eye, Kim hopes to generate community support that will help protect Sierra bighorn forever.
Battling rain, wind, and temperatures cold enough to freeze her paints, Kim completed the first mural in late November 2012 on the walls of the Mount Williamson Motel in Independence. Easily seen from the highway, the mural depicts the growth stages of a bighorn ram from a two-month-old lamb to an eight-year-old adult. Kim’s work has given the elusive bighorn a place on the center stage of our community, and it has been truly rewarding to watch her turn her artistic ideals into a powerful conservation statement.
Ever since the precipitous decline that landed Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep on the federal endangered species list, teams of researchers have monitored the population closely to ascertain its progress toward recovery. Over the past year, successful surveys and the discovery of newly-occupied sheep habitat have led to an exciting conclusion: there may now be as many as 500 Sierra bighorn in our mountains. While the road to full recovery is long, this number represents significant and promising growth from a population low of 100 animals in 1995.
