Latest / Conservation Stories / Women Hunt: Mentorship, Field to Fork, and Finding Your Place Outdoors

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Women Hunt: Mentorship, Field to Fork, and Finding Your Place Outdoors · Conservation Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hello, I'm Dusty Timmons with Conservation Stories, and I recently was afforded the opportunity to go to the Hunt Fish Podcast Summit held outside of Houston and interview a number of venturing people for the conservation stories that you'll be hearing over the next couple of weeks. Included in these are people from all walks of life that are involved in conservation and charitable organizations that I feel will be really interesting. I hope you enjoy the podcast as much as I enjoyed recording the interviews for you. Good morning. Right now I am with Renee Thornton. Renee Thornton. And that's probably a Texas pronunciation there of your name. I apologize. She's the founder and chair of the Wild Sheep Foundation's Women's Hunt program and Committee and the Women in Hunting Initiative. And I want to start off this thing by saying that this is a topic that is very interesting to me and it is very. I feel like it's very important as a hunter to get new people into it. So tell me a little bit about the women's hunt and how it started and a little bit about the organization itself.
• 1:05
  Speaker B: Yeah, thanks so much. You know, the genesis of Women Hunt is pretty straightforward. I myself was a solo female adult onset hunter. I made a decision in 2016 when I was in my mid-40s that I wanted to learn how to hunt. Had been something I'd been thinking about for a while, but I didn't know anybody who did it. I had to figure out how to pathfind that myself. At the time, I lived in Alberta, Canada. I'm a Canadian by birth. And so there was a whole journey for me about firearms ownership that I needed to tackle first. Very different than in the United States,
• 1:35
  Speaker A: a little bit different than in the United States.
• 1:38
  Speaker B: So got through that and you know, it was interesting. It was that time in my life where I had been thinking about hunting for several years, kept pushing the thought aside because I didn't know anybody who did it. And it overwhelmed me and I was a little bit scared to try to dip my toe in.
• 1:54
  Speaker A: It's a pretty daunting task to get into.
• 1:56
  Speaker B: It is on so many things like the. With the firearms. If you know, I had never handled a firearm in my life. I had fear around firearms. I understood it was a male dominated industry that gave me some trepidations, just not even knowing where to start. But I worked as an executive in lots of different roles for the federal government throughout my career in Canada and really good at solving problems and strategic thinking. And I thought, what are you doing? You know better. All you have to do is take that first step. It's a great life lesson for anybody considering anything new. Just take the first step. It's the scariest one you're gonna take out of the whole journey. Just do it. So that's what I did and figured out the firearms ownership first, got my hunter education. Second, joined a whole bunch of local rod and gun clubs in the Calgary area of Alberta to just try to make some friends. And the Wild Sheep foundation for your listeners, an international organization. It's based in Bozeman, Montana. That's where the international headquarters are. But it has chapters and affiliates all throughout Canada and the US And Mexico. Not just where wild sheep are found, but also we have chapters in areas of the country where wild sheep are not found. But they're passionate about the resource. And so, you know, if you're thinking, what's a wild sheep? If you don't know. The four primary species in North America are the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, the desert bighorn sheep, the stone sheep and the Dalles sheep, which are found in the north in Alaska, British Columbia, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Those are thinhorn. Those are our four primaries. So that helps clarify things for folks. I joined the Alberta chapter of the Wild Sheep foundation and I started to make friends so we could talk about my journey into hunting for the full hour here, but I'll skip. So it was a really remarkable first 18 months in my journey. Certainly had some ups and downs. Couple times where I almost gave up, but I'm pretty tenacious woman. I just stuck with it. Pushed through what were presented as barriers for me, found ways to overcome them and persist, persevered, was able to get a first hunting mentor that was a game changer. He was excellent moral ethic, ethically, we aligned. He was a great teacher. And so how this led to the creation of women Hunt is that once I joined that Alberta chapter of the Wild Sheep foundation, then I learned, oh, there's actually a mothership, the Wild Sheep Foundation. So I joined that organization. I went to their annual big expo and convention. Like SCI has one, you know, NWTF has one, mule deer has one. All the big national organizations have a show. So I went to my first sheep show in early 2018 on my own. Didn't know anybody, just bought my package, flew down, made a ton of new friends that are some of my best friends to this day. As you know, the hunting community is one of the most welcoming communities out there. Right.
• 5:00
  Speaker A: It's, it's wild.
• 5:01
  Speaker B: It's the opposite of what people think
• 5:03
  Speaker A: it is very much that's the thing that's so amazing about it is that, you know, you'll go in like, I took my first trip to the Pheasant Fest, which is Pheasants Unlimited trade show show at the last year. And I'm like, I don't know a soul here. You know, I'm like, I drove 12 hours to get to it and got up there and I knew nobody when I got there and I knew 30 people when I left.
• 5:27
  Speaker B: Right.
• 5:27
  Speaker A: And I am not an extrovert. I'm not the guy that's just going to go up and sit and make friends. You that's my mother. My mother is the extrovert in the family. Everybody else is diminishing levels of it from there. But it's just, you know, you go in and everybody's willing to help you. And that's one of the things that makes it so exciting.
• 5:45
  Speaker B: It is, it really is. And yeah. So I always say to women who approach me about getting into hunting, this is going to be one of the best decisions of your life for many reasons. And one of them is just for the quality of the people you're going to interact with. So as I mentioned, I was an Albertan, I'm born and raised Canadian and I was living and working in Calgary, Alberta. And I would fly fish in the summertime in northeastern Montana because it was a quick four hour drive right on the Kootenay, which is an incredible trout fishery. And I have a great guide up there that I love, Dave Blackburn with Kootenay anglers. And I would book my summer trips and, you know, three, four days of fishing with him, do some camping. So I went to my first sheep show that January 2018, met a whole bunch of great people, checked that organization out, was so impressed with their content conservation ethos. You know, it is a primarily a conservation organization. Their purpose is to put and keep wild sheep on the mountain. They also have aspects about hunter heritage and protecting our rights as hunters. But their primary focus is conservation really appealed to me. So I fell in love with the organization and I met one of the biologists at an Alberta event that year. And then I'm gearing up for this trip, my annual fly fishing trip in Montana. And I thought, I wonder what's going on with the Wild Sheep Foundation. They're in Montana, they're in Bozeman. So I went on their website and they were having this open house. So I lengthened my holidays, I did the fly fishing trip, then I drove down to Bozeman, camped down there in my Tent fly fished, did some hiking and attended this open house. And I had signed up to volunteer. They were having this open house. And that's where I met the past chairman of the board, a gentleman named Brett Jefferson from Nevada. And we just, I didn't know who he was, but just ran into him and introduced ourselves and we sat down and chatted for like an hour. And he wanted to really hear in depth what my journey as a solo female adult onset hunter was like. Unbeknownst to me, after that, he called the president and CEO of the Wild Sheep Foundation. You know, that's. He's the boss of the president and CEO. It's a nonprofit, it's run by a board, there's paid staff to report up. And he said, did you get a chance to meet that Renee girl from Calgary? And he's like, yeah, I was introduced to her. And he said, well, I want you to call her and spend some time talking to her. You need to hear her story and how she pathfinded her way into hunting on her own. Because I think it's time for the Wild Sheep foundation to do something to support getting more women into hunting and conservation. So that is what led to initial discussions and then Brett formally approaching me to build a program for the foundation. So the genesis came from my journey. Could I have ever predicted when I made that first decision in 2016, that by 2018 I suddenly was building a program for a major international organization? Nope. It's amazing. I'm a faith based person. When you surrender your life to God and when you just lead your life in an authentic and true and transparent way, it's amazing what can come to you without saying seeking it, without being purposeful about it. Right. So, you know, it's, it's been a wild ride. Our program started so small, you know, really grassroots, really. You know, I built this volunteer committee. We're all volunteers. Women across Canada and the U.S. sit on the committee with different backgrounds and strengths and skill sets. And you know, initially we went to our community at the Wild Sheep foundation at the Expo and you know, what do you guys want from us? Took input. Then Covid happened. Everything came to a screech and halt. And then we came out roaring out of COVID with a skills based training program. It's our classic offering. It's really where we built our reputation. And our program that's the backbone of women Hunt is this field to fork course that's offered at the FTW ranch here in Texas, close to Barksdale. And the FTW is an exceptional ranch, about 12,000 acres. It has a breeding program of exotics and of course, native whitetail. But also what it's known for is its precision rifle training. And they employ former special special forces. It's owned by a former military man who served. And there's gun ranges all over this ranch. And they, you know, they have precision rifle, they have safari training, you know, lots of different hunt combos and a medic program like when you're in the backcountry for days and you don't have access to health help when you're, if you get hurt. And then they developed this field to fork course during COVID when they had a little bit of a time on their hands. And so we partnered with them. You know, we don't mess with the instruction. These guys know what they're doing. They're all not only skilled firearms instructors, but they're all skilled hunters. Right. So, but what we did is partnering with them in order to incorporate, incorporate some of the conservation ethos I mentioned earlier. So one of the things that, you know, I'm a voracious reader. So when I started my journey, I was reading a lot, talking to people, picking people's brain, helped me understand why it's okay to hunt in Africa because I initially had a barrier with that. A lot of people do, why would you hunt in Africa? Right. But, you know, I got through all of that by asking questions and reading and researching. And so, you know, what I discovered in those early days was this thing I'd never heard of before, the North American model of wildlife conservation. And that model describes many different things, but one of the things it describes very well is how and why hunting plays such a critical and important role in wildlife conservation. Again, in many people's minds, that's a contradiction. How can you be conserving wildlife if you're hunting wildlife? But it's, you know, it's a great, great tool to guide these conversations. So really important for the women who come through our program to have a basic understanding of that model. Because what we're doing is we're preparing them to go out and hunt in the world. We give them first class training at the ranch. We have great sponsors and donors that set them up with all sorts of hunting gear to get started. We find the mentors when they come out of the program. We task them with giving back. You know, we teach, we talk about these principles of giving back, being of service. You know, they get this opportunity through, through our application process. It's very competitive. It's a Scholarship approach doesn't cost them anything. It's worth a lot of money. So we ask them to give back. And so part of our responsibility is making sure when they get out there, whether it's like whether they're doing advocacy in their communities, whether they're volunteering for Wild Sheep foundation or Women Hunt or some of our chapters, or whether just trying to talk to their family members who might be confused about why they suddenly want to hunt. Being able to talk about the North American model, even if it's a basic understanding, goes a long way to demonstrating that you are able to articulate these principles. Right. These pillars. So really, really important part of our, of our program and Field to Fork remains what we're most known for. But we're growing in leaps and bounds and we can take this conversation wherever you want.
• 12:53
  Speaker A: Well, let's talk a little bit about you. Did you have covered, filled the fork but that program, you were discussing it last night. That's the cool thing about being able to listen to you talk, get to listen to you talk and then I get to listen to you talk again and then ask you questions about it when that, you know, the big drive and it's very, you know, that, you know, trying to get closer to your food.
• 13:14
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 13:15
  Speaker A: You know, and I grew up on a farm. I'm 52 years old or close enough to 52 that it doesn't matter anymore. And my whole life has been farm based. You know, I grew up with cows, raising bottle fed calves and that kind of stuff and taking them. You know, I have eaten a lot of pigs and sheep and chicken and cows that I raised.
• 13:36
  Speaker B: Right.
• 13:36
  Speaker A: You know, and it's kind of one of the jokes about, you know, you don't name your food. I got over that a long time ago. I like to eat, I like to eat meat, but you know, so I'm familiar with that. But we've gotten so far, you know, in the 50 years of my life we've drifted so far away from food. Like I saw somebody interviewing Dan. It's like, okay, if you, you know, band like they were interviewing people in Britain. Like, okay, if you shut down farming in Britain, you know, where are you going to get food? I'm no longer going to get it from the grocery store. There's no connection between that. But when you go to the field D4 program that you've got, it's even more so because it's something that you're harvesting yourself. You know, you're putting in the effort and the work to track it. Down to learn the species, whatever it is, whether it's birds or, you know, ducks, geese, quail, pheasant, bighorn sheep, whitetail deer, you know, feral hogs. Anything that you do, you know, you're going, you're doing, you're learning how, you're learning the biology and how they, how they move, where they're going to be and you know, then setting up in your hunting and you're taking that animal.
• 14:36
  Speaker B: Shot placement.
• 14:37
  Speaker A: Yes, shot placement, exactly. Yeah. Because you know, it's, it's, it's funny how particularly I was like, I've never been to Africa hunting, but I had a, I have a very vivid imagination and I read voraciously my entire life. And you know, the shot placement is different in animals in Africa than it is in most of our North American species. But you go through that and then, you know, the processing and then getting it and then cooking it all, I mean, all the way through. I mean, it doesn't get more personal than when you hunt your own food.
• 15:09
  Speaker B: Absolutely.
• 15:10
  Speaker A: And it's, and I'm glad to see that kind of growing and I'm glad to see when you do the Field to fork, how far, how deep into the whole process is, Is that, is that a, you know, do you just shoot it and then they kind of walk you through it? But go ahead and tell me, deep dive into that.
• 15:27
  Speaker B: The course is extremely comprehensive and it's, you know, four and a half days and it's full days, like 12 hour days. It's really intense and it does, it takes you right from the beginning. You know, whether you go to the Field to Fork course at FTW through Women Hunt or whether you just personally invest in that course. You know, you can do it two different ways and you don't have to be a woman. Right. It can be for anybody. You know, you don't even even need to have ever touched a firearm in your life. It doesn't matter. They're so good they'll have you accurate and proficient. 700 yards, no word of a lie in the first day. And then, you know, you will find your personal limit of where you're comfortable shooting. For most people it's somewhere between two and 400 yards. Right. And they help you will discover that on your own within the first, the first 48 hours where you're most comfortable shooting. Maximum distance for holding, for wind and all, you know, up elevation, degrees of angle, all of it. And then they do teach you everything about your firearm. Your optics on your firearm, the ballistic turret scopes, how to Clean it, sight it in, true it, you know, walk you out to 700. Then they start doing positional shooting, get you comfortable, seated, kneeling standards, standing, using your backpack for supports, you know, that chicken wing flop in there, stabilizing for that acceptable reticle movement. All these things get covered. It's remarkable what they can teach you in such a collapsed period of time. And, you know, it's unbelievably. Our first hunt is the evening of the second day. And that is always mind blowing for our students. They're just like, what do you mean? I'm ready, I'm ready. You know, and they're ready enough. They are. They really are. And that's what they so transformative about our program and this partnership we have with FTW is that it's so empowering. And we see this every class. They're so insecure, they're nervous, you know, they're overwhelmed. And the growth is. It's different for all 12 of them, but it's, it's just like spikes. You know, you watch it happening and you know, it's. They teach them, of course, game identification. We want to make sure we're killing that white tail do doe and not a whitetail buck. That's going to cost 20 grand, right? So, you know, game identification, shot placement, field trailing. They teach them that and then they get them out hunting that first second night. And then there's five hunts, you know, throughout the four and a half days. Morning and evening hunts. The second we get a doe down, our first doe down. Everybody's involved in what happens next. So they bring the harvest back to the main lodge area. All the students go in, they learn how to field dress it, and then they learn how to quarter it. Then they learn, they're taught how to butcher it, prepare different cuts of meat, and then they do some cooking as well throughout the course. And then of course, everybody's at different stages and not everybody harvests. It's hunting, it's not shooting.
• 18:27
  Speaker A: Right?
• 18:27
  Speaker B: It's not shooting, yeah. So, you know, not everybody harvests. But another thing we do is one of our major donors is Yeti. And they provide all the women with a really nice 45 quart cooler and some ice packs. And they share the harvest with each other. So everybody goes home with wild game meat, which is so wonderful for all the participants, regardless if they're successful or not. And so it's just unbelievable. And we just, it's that the girls, the women rather, you know, they just gel up as a unit. They support each other I should mention that our class of 25, our graduating class of 25, actually every woman did harvest the first time ever in the history of our program.
• 19:12
  Speaker A: Oh, wow.
• 19:13
  Speaker B: And it just. The stars aligned, the weather was good, the animals were moving, everybody was able to get on. It was remarkable. So that was really something to see celebrate.
• 19:23
  Speaker A: That is really cool. That is, that's, you know, have hunted for a long time and it is exceedingly rare.
• 19:30
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 19:30
  Speaker A: For everybody in a. In a camp of six to get something the same in the same four days band, much less 25. Yeah, that's. That's putting in some effort and getting it done. That's, you know, that's, that's. I would have bought a lottery ticket, But that is, that's amazing because, you know, listen, you talk about that. That FTW is like, I've been shooting for. I don't remember learning to shoot. I've done it, you know, grew up on the farm and I honestly, I don't remember. You know, it's kind of like somebody asked me when I learned to drive and like, I don't remember learning. You know, I just. It's just something like I've always known,
• 20:09
  Speaker B: especially on a farm.
• 20:10
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 20:10
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 20:11
  Speaker A: And so. But hearing you talk about that, man, I probably ought to take that course too, you know, And I've been doing it for a long time. You know, that's the thing, that's the beautiful thing about it, is that you can always learn something new. But the amount of confidence that a program like that would give to a newbie, you know, whether male, female, whatever, the amount of confidence you come in, you know, you. You come into it, don't know anything nervous about, you know, because, I mean, more than likely there's not. These are not a bunch of people that, that know each other going into it. You know, it's not a group of friends that are going on strangers. It's, you know, you're coming in, so you've got the stress of strangers, which that's, you know, different for different. Different levels of stress for different people. You know, for me, it's a little bit higher than, you know, for other people. Not so much, but you've got that stress. But then you go into it and you overcome so much and you learn so much. And, you know, when you're successful like that, it's just, it's. It's transformative, you know, I mean, it can really. And it can transfer into other aspects of your life. The confidence that you can gain from learning a new skill and Being successful, successful in learning this new skill, you know, it can transfer over to all aspects of your life.
• 21:20
  Speaker B: You bet. And these women, you know, over the five years that we've run this program, these women, as you can imagine, come from all walks of life. And most of our applicants are still out of Canada and the U.S. but we're starting to get international applications now. We haven't. We haven't qualified an applicant from the. From internationally yet. We're hoping that we get a great application this year, that we can continue get somebody from the international community, but nevertheless, really diverse. Oh, we had our first Mexican in 2025. That was new, too. So we had somebody from Mexico. Yeah, that's great. But in any case, these women are all from different walks of life, different personalities. Introverts, extroverts, you know, confident, not confident, all over the map. And we stay in touch with them, of course, you know, because we offer mentorship, and we want them to stay connected with our Womenhood community and the Wild Sheep foundation and all our chapters and affiliates and start giving back directly to these organizations that made it all happen. Right. And so, you know, to your point, some of these women. Absolutely. The confidence that they learn through our program translates to other aspects of their lives. We've had women who were fearful of changing their occupation because of the. Was comfortable, although they were unhappy and they wanted to do something else, and they weren't passionate about it, who were like, I just learned that I can do anything. I can hit steel at 700 yards. I overcame my fear of taking the life of an animal and realized that actually brought me closer to my food, and that's a good thing, and all these transformative things. So the program is very impactful. It does change lives. I know that sounds. It's kind of an overused statement, but it really does transform lives. And then what's the greatest thing about it, honestly, is that whole cycle of giving back, that's really where we're seeing dividends, is that in a climate where we are. Where hunters and sustainable use of wildlife is increasingly under pressure, developing the voice of women to get out there and be so energized and changed by their experience that. That they are evangelizing in the truest sense of the word, you know, outside of a religious reference, they are evangelizing for hunting its role in sustainable use of wildlife, and it transcends to the rights of firearms owners and beyond. Right.
• 23:49
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 23:50
  Speaker B: And, you know, when I think about that ripple effect and, you know, these women are now touching thousands and Thousands of lives. That's where I get most energized about all the work that our volunteer committee does. It's just the most gratifying part for me.
• 24:05
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's. I mean, it's. It's so amazing. I mean, you see that and having been in, you know, there's a big misconception that hunting is that. That men don't want women to hunt, that there's some underlying level of misogyny in it. And I have never found that to be the case. What I have always found when you get into it is, like, is, you know, most hunters, they don't care who you are. If you want to hunt, you hunt. Let's go. You know, I was joking the other day. I said, you know, I've never known a guy that had that, you know, that somebody come up and say, I want to go hunting. Okay, let's go hunting. You know, it's an excuse. You know, as hunters, we're always looking for an excuse. Excuse to take the time trip.
• 24:50
  Speaker B: Right.
• 24:50
  Speaker A: You know, much to the chagrin of my budget.
• 24:53
  Speaker B: Isn't that the truth?
• 24:56
  Speaker A: But, you know, that's the thing about it is that that with that misconception that has been. And it's. It's just primarily been. Because it's just in the 50s and 60s, when it was, you know, girl, that was always, you know, the. The articles you read was, you know, one dude went hunting and wrote a story about going hunting, you know, and that was. You had the big men at the time. You know, you had the Howard Hills. You had Fredbear, Chuck Adams. You know, those are the guys that, you know, those are all bow hunters. But, you know, those are who I cut my teeth reading. You know, those are the people that lit my imagination on fire at that time. And it's, you know, it's not that there wasn't a desire for women. There's just. Honestly, nobody thought about it, you know, and now there's. There's. You're seeing people like yourself that are actively thinking, hey, you know what? We need to make sure that more people know that, you know, hey, woman, you can go hunting, too.
• 25:54
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 25:54
  Speaker A: You know, and it's. It's. Watching that change and watching the growth of women in the outdoor space has been really interesting.
• 26:03
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's great to hear. You know, and I agree with you that in general, what. Everything you said is great. Correct. There are certainly a few little pockets here and there of negativity, but you'll find that in any group of people, right you know, but absolutely, you're correct. And, you know, while this program is called Women Hunt, and it is designed to provide opportunity for women, it's not at the exclusion of men. What I mean by that is, like, men are critically important in our journeys. We're important to men, and men are important to women. You know, and so every single one of my hunting mentors has been a man. I've never had a female mentor. It's always worked out. I've never had a problem with it. Whether they're teaching me to shoot or to hunt or a new something or other, you know, it doesn't matter. So we. We love it when guys show up to our seminars. We love it when guys engage with us on social media because we're all in it together.
• 26:59
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 26:59
  Speaker B: And so, you know, I want to say that, you know, when I was talking about providing opportunity for women and developing them in a way that they can then go out and be informed and able to articulate things calmly and reasonably in a very charged atmosphere.
• 27:16
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 27:16
  Speaker B: Hostile, charged atmosphere. One of the things I truly believe is that women present a different narrative when it comes to hunting. And I say that I'm not criticizing men when I say that. It is simply a different narrative. So we have a different way of expressing ourselves, a different tone of voice, a different way of approaching things. Often our motivations are different. Not always, but often they are. For a lot of the women that I interact with, they want to feed not just themselves, but their families. You know, women are caretakers. These are good roles. There's nothing wrong with any of this. And so it's very difficult to argue with a woman who is talking sensibly, calmly about her motivations for hunting that are centered around good, clean protein, an animal that hasn't been interfered with or molested. And when I say molested, I mean, like, you know, antibiotics and all the stuff that we do in agricultural practices, you know, somebody's looking for a cleaner source of protein.
• 28:19
  Speaker A: It doesn't get more organic than.
• 28:20
  Speaker B: Exactly. And then she says, and I want to feed my family. I mean, what do you say to that?
• 28:25
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 28:27
  Speaker B: So I just think that as we continue to press forward on, you know, there's really critical things happening at the state level. Colorado is under pressure big time. You know, but it's not the only place. It's worldwide. You know, England has been at the forefront of just some ridiculous decisions, but they're not at the extreme exclusion of England. I mean, it's really spreading. So the more of us that are all united and don't perceive each other as competition. And we can just step forward collectively as a community and start to say, here's why it's okay for human beings who are a presence on this planet and have been to sustainably use wildlife to feed ourselves and feed ourselves well and help maintain wildlife populations.
• 29:16
  Speaker A: Exactly.
• 29:16
  Speaker B: I keep hearing about white tailed deer. I mean, in Alberta, white tail deer are almost as bad as rats, you know, and I've heard the same story of the Midwest about, you know, you've
• 29:25
  Speaker A: got them in the same thing here as the suburb, as the cities grow and suburbs increase, you know, that they're. I mean, I have friends that live just outside of Austin and they're like, I can't grow flowers in my flower bed.
• 29:38
  Speaker B: The deer come in.
• 29:38
  Speaker A: The deer come in. You know, every planning decision that they make for a flower bed is, you know, they've got to have make, you know, make sure that the deer don't eat that. Right. You know, I've got another friend that lives near Fredericksburg, which is.
• 29:51
  Speaker B: I love Fredericksburg.
• 29:52
  Speaker A: And she lives south there out in the country and she tries to raise the garden every year. She finally, you know, she's like, I've got it high fist and I can't keep the deer out of it.
• 29:59
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 30:00
  Speaker A: And she's like, she's like, they're just everywhere.
• 30:02
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 30:02
  Speaker A: He's like, they just come in and it's just, they're. But I mean, I think Texas has, I believe we have still have the largest whitetail herd in the United States. And I can't remember how big it is, but I know it's substantial. Where I am in the southern high plains, we have mule deer a little bit, but even where we have mule and I mean we're row crop, it's flat like we are here. You know, it's relatively flat. It's not as flat as everybody gives it credit for, but it's still flat enough. You know, the joke is that the only thing between us and Canada is a four strand barbed wire fence and three strands are down, so and so it's, you know, it's pretty flat, but there's not a lot of COVID for it. But I spend, you know, obviously spend a lot of time out on the farm and stuff like that. And you know, I see me, I see mule deer every day. I went from, you know, 30 years ago or actually about 35 years ago, I saw my first tracks when I was out in the. In that area where I am in the southern high plains of Texas saw my first deer track out there, and I was shocked. And I tracked that thing for a quarter mile just because I could. I could not believe I saw deer tracks. I'm like, I've never seen a deer here to. Now I see them so frequently, I don't even think about them. I'm just like, oh, my God, there's another 23 mule deer in my vineyard now. But even then, we have a large whitetail. Well, we've got mule deer up there. But just last summer I saw a whitetail, and I had to stop and look at it and pull my binoculars up and look at it again and then watch it run away, flagging at me to make sure that I was seeing what I was seeing. They're adaptable creatures and they get. Get through everywhere. But I wanted to go back to. You said, you know, you said that none of your mentors have been men.
• 31:37
  Speaker B: Have been women.
• 31:38
  Speaker A: Have been women. I'm sorry. Yeah. What I was getting to is that. But, you know, but how many people are you getting to be? How many women are you mentoring that. Don't. Can't say that anymore. Because, hey, Granny Thornton, she's one of my big mentors. I mean, you go through in the outdoor space, you've got, you know, you've got the. The Kiskis, Kandy Kiski and Tiffany, I think is her name. Lynn Tiffany and the Crush. That's the show. I would watch all the hunting shows and stuff, and you see more and more and more of that stuff. And I look forward to the day when every woman can say. Well, can say, you know, not have to say that, you know, they're all men.
• 32:14
  Speaker B: Right.
• 32:15
  Speaker A: And it's not like you said, I don't have. I mean, it's not a problem. It's just the way it is. You know, you have this Penn State, and, you know, I would. I would love nothing more than to watch the number of hunting licenses sold in North America double. Because every one of them be sold to a woman. Yeah, because that would just. Because it just doubles your base.
• 32:33
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 32:33
  Speaker A: I mean, I want more people to hunt, and I want less barriers to entry in it. And anything that we can do to make that move and make it more open and more acceptable and more accessible. Not acceptable, but accessible to anyone. It's big.
• 32:49
  Speaker B: You bet. And, you know, you're talking about doubling the base. I'm going to say the more women we get, we're actually going to do more than double. Because as much as men bring their kids hunting, women bring their Entire families. Whatever a woman decides she wants to do, she brings her whole family with her. Often she brings her community with her. Right. And so it's another great reason why, you know, the community at large should be thinking precisely the way you are. Just, let's build those opportunities to get more women. It's just going to bring more kids. It's going to bring more everything. And, you know, I recognize and we talked about it before we started recording, there's lots of great programs out there by lots of organizations. NWTF is becoming an outdoor woman. Pheasants Forever has women on the wing. You know, we can go on and on and on. There's great programs out there. Most state, provincial, territorial agencies have some sort of hunter education with their components attached to it. Right. Then there's individuals, entrepreneurs. We were talking about some of them before we recorded too. Women out there who are just creating programming, you know, good for them. You know, I'm. I'm in the nonprofit track. I'm a volunteer in the nonprofit track. But there are tons of tons of women out there in the profit, private industry world that are doing great programming for women. There's lots of opportunity. In the decade I've been at this, I can tell you it has fundamentally shifted. The number of women that are involved in hunting now is exponentially higher than even 10 years ago. And the number of opportunity has, I think, grown even more. And, you know, and on that note, I also wanted to talk a little bit about some of our other programming because we've been like, expanding, like creating crazy. We're really getting so much traction. We've been getting pushed by our members, just like, do more, do different. They love Field to Fork, but for a lot of folks, they're like, I'm not a newer, newer hunter. What else can you do for me? So some of the stuff we've been building. One of our graduates from our class of 2024, Emily Rickett, she's in Michigan. She has a brand called Mama Bear. She wrote a book, Mama Bear Survival, and she went through Feel to Fork. She's a former vegan. She used to be a news reporter. She's embarrassed to say it now, but she used to fly down whoever she used to report for, used to fly her down to Hollywood to do red carpet interviews with vegan Hollywood celebrities. She's mortified now, but she had this transformation where I don't want to speak for her, but she had a transformation and she just completely flipped. And then she wanted to learn to hunt. She applied to our program. She got accepted and her life got changed. She harvested her first animal at FTW and she was so inspired that she called up the committee and said, I want to build a program that is for adult women and young women, like pairs of women. So whether it's mother, daughter, or grandmother and granddaughter or whatever combination adult woman and youth, women, child. And. And she, because she lives in Michigan, she had gotten to know the folks who run the Legends Ranch, another great facility that does exceptional instruction. And so in 2025, we offered our first women hunt. Mama Bear Field Camp. That's what it's called. And we're going to keep doing it. It was crazy successful, changed a bunch of lives. You wouldn't believe the letters and cards I'm getting from these young girls that went through and their moms and or chaperones and it's, you know, so that's another piece of business we're growing and developing. We also are launching this September our first ever offering on the east coast with Griffin and Howe. They have the Hudson farm, an exceptional property in New Jersey. I think it's New Jersey's largestly, largest privately held piece of land.
• 36:34
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 36:35
  Speaker B: They all, they do rifle instruction, shotgun instruction, archery instruction, pistol instruction. It's quite a high end place. Really refined dining and other experiences there. And we are built, we've built a package with them that we're selling right now. And it's going to be a concentration on shotgunning. But there will be some pistol, rifle and archery instruction and it's going to culminate in a driven pheasant hunt. So that's going to be super fun.
• 37:05
  Speaker A: That is really. That is. Sounds really fun. Yeah, that sounds really. I mean, driven pheasant hunting is. I don't know if many listeners will know what that is, but that's the, that is the classic England hunt is a driven hunt. Yeah. You know, and that's, that's something that, you know, everybody. That's, you know, upland bird hunters. That's kind of like most of them are like, I want to do that before I die because it's a completely different feel and how you do it and everything. But that sounds like that's amazing opportunities that are going into that thing. And I'm so excited to see what you're doing and what the Wild Sheep foundation and women hunts are doing and growing that.
• 37:46
  Speaker B: Thank you.
• 37:46
  Speaker A: And opportunities in there. Is there a way that you can. Is there donor links that were specifically to women hunts or the general donation to the wild.
• 37:56
  Speaker B: Thank you for asking that. Yes. So because we're a program of the Wild Sheep Foundation. Our presence on the web is on the Wild Sheep Foundation's website. Maybe we can put that in the show notes, but it's wildsheepfoundation.org and then when you go to the main webpage, you'll see a drop down menu who we are and then you'll see Women Hunt. And then there's different options in Women Hunt and there is an option right there to donate. If you don't want to navigate that way, you can do it differently on the website through Support Us. And then you have radial buttons. You can select Women hunt. So thank you for asking that. That is a great way to support. We also have in womenhunt, our Ruby Mayflower Blake Legacy Fund. I mentioned that.
• 38:38
  Speaker A: Yes, you did. I wanted to make sure we talked
• 38:40
  Speaker B: about that as well. So Ruby was a member of the Wild she Foundation and a real, like, everybody knew her. She was the spark in the room. Really hilarious. Out of Alaska, she had survived a fairly traumatic first marriage with some domestic violence and finally left that situation and then eventually met one of our members, Derek Blake, who's born an Alaska native. He's a commercial fisherman. He also is a hunting outfitter. And they, they met each other and it was, they were like, they were like the Camelot of the hunting world. They were like Mr. And Mrs. Perfect. They were perfect for each other and vibrant, vibrant young couple. And they were married. We were actually at their wedding in Anchorage. It was fabulous. And. And then shortly after they were married, Ruby became pregnant and they had a baby girl. And then very tragically, when harbor was three months old, Ruby died in a drowning accident when they were on one of their hunting boats with clients. So Derek, as you can imagine, was absolutely devastated. They were newlyweds. They had this baby girl and he just lost the love of his life. And she really was just a light in every room she ever went into. So really admired and respected by many, many people. And so Derek approached the Wild Sheep foundation and asked if they would consider supporting him in a vision he had to create a fund in her memory, the Ruby Mayflower Blake Legacy Fund. And Gray Thornton is the president and CEO and is actually now my husband. But anyway, Derek had called Gray to talk, talk to him about this. And you know, Gray didn't hesitate. And so the fund's purpose is to provide healing outdoor opportunities for women who've survived some sort of trauma, not necessarily domestic violence. It can be any number of things. You know, all human beings suffer trauma at different times in their lives and in different ways. But sometimes some people really get hammered. And so it can be hunts, although, and so far it's only been hunts. Our recipients have been open to hunting and wanting to do it, but it can be other things. You know, if we get a different recipient who's reluctant to hunt and maybe wants to fish or do some, something else in the outdoors, we'll be providing that. But the fund is in its infancy. But we've sent a couple of women so far on absolutely amazing hunting journeys where they have experienced great healing. As it turns out, both of the women had lost their husbands through bush plane accidents, coincidentally. But nevertheless, for them, neither one of them had hunted with their husbands and it was a direct connection to them and what their husbands love to do. So the fund is another really important part of Women Hunt. And there's opportunities to donate directly to that if that appeals to people, that specifically appeals to people. So. And then, you know, the other thing we started just brand new in January is our own podcast, right? So that's another piece of new business for us. It's called Ignite. And Dana Dykema is from Vancouver, British Columbia. And I'd had this idea about starting a podcast for, you know, a little over a year. I knew I didn't have the bandwidth to do it or really the interest or talent to do it, and I needed to find, find somebody to do it. And so I quietly stalked some people online for about six months, and she was one of the people I was watching. And then we approached her to hire her to start and run a podcast for us. And as you know, she's here this weekend to be as a podcaster, to gather content from all the wonderful guests that are here. But we know it's a tight market. But we, we're excited about our podcast and we've had some great guests so far, so.
• 42:37
  Speaker A: Well, that's the, you know, I'm excited to, you know, I just found out about the podcast. Podcast last night, obviously, and I've got an eight and a half hour drive to make on set on Sunday, so I may catch up on all the episodes. So that's the good thing. I mean, that's, you know, that's amazing. I have talked briefly with Dana and she seems like going to be a great fit. I mean, she seems like she is going to be. She's with us saying, we got all that and a bag of chips. Yes, she is definitely, definitely all that. I mean, it's, it's pretty amazing that, like I said, I'M very excited about getting back on that drive and listening to her podcast. And I can't wait to go to hear. Hear what her views on it. Because, I mean, you know, it's the one thing I love about, you know, I'm. I'm not a technological wizard. I don't really like technology. Like, if I could not have a cell phone, it'd be great.
• 43:31
  Speaker B: Right?
• 43:31
  Speaker A: You know, I remember the days of having it mounted in my pickup, and I'm, like, going, I would really like to go back to where it was mounted in my pickup. And if I got in a tractor, I didn't have my cell phone with me. Yeah. But the other. The flip side of that is I would lose my mind if I didn't have the ability to. To get podcasts. And it's, you know, it's relatively inexpensive to get in there, and you get a lot of different. You know, I've learned things about things I never would have dreamed I would have ever thought about. You know, I was telling somebody the other day, I said, you know, I don't watch TV anymore. Like, I watch sports. You know, I watch my. My college football team or basketball team or something like that. But I've got a smart TV. I'll turn on YouTube and I watch some crazy dude in New Zealand go camping in the snow. You know, just because it's there, you know, there's no TV going to put that on, but, you know, being able to get different perspectives and stuff. And I'm really excited about listening to her podcast.
• 44:22
  Speaker B: Awesome.
• 44:22
  Speaker A: Thanks. I'm really excited about that, and I'm really excited about what the National Wild Sheep foundation is doing, and not just in the women's hunt organization, but supporting the sheep. You know, sheep are. It's a kind of. There's such a. And I don't know exactly how to. I'm going to say this, and I'm not going to. And I'm going to try to say it. There's such a forgotten species, because you don't, you know, you're not. They're not big, huge things like moose that you're looking at, you know, and they're like, my God, that thing's huge. And they're not ubiquitous, like whitetails. They're everywhere, you know, to the, to the point of like, almost, you know, almost being too many in a lot of areas. And they're kind, you know, they're. They live and need the lonely places.
• 45:10
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 45:11
  Speaker A: You know, they, they. That's just. They got. You got to be up There. And that's what they. What they. You know, the middle of the desert. You know, they're. They're places that are. They're lonely places.
• 45:21
  Speaker B: Yeah. And they're in lonely high altitude.
• 45:23
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 45:23
  Speaker B: And. And to your point about kind of overlooked or forgotten, they're not found in most of the United States. So for a lot of people that we meet in areas of the US where wild sheep are not found, and they see, like, maybe my husband's wearing a shirt that says Wild Sheep foundation, or we get talking with somebody and they're like, oh, you mean like the sheep that are sheared for wool? No, but they actually don't know that this creature exists. Right. And so, you know, are you gonna have an opportunity to podcast with Gray this.
• 45:53
  Speaker A: I believe so, yes. Oh, great.
• 45:54
  Speaker B: You know, he is the right one to talk to about this stuff. And. Yeah, you're right. The foundation does tremendous work. Women Hunt is a little tiny part. A little tiny part. You know, we have a youth program. So many things. Grant and aid. I know Gray will talk to you about this stuff. You're gonna have a great.
• 46:08
  Speaker A: Well, I'm gonna. I'm gonna pester him quite a bit on this, on the sheep side of things. But, you know, I'm just like the. Or, you know, I've known the Wild Sheep foundation for a long time because if you read every hunting magazine that came out between 1986 and 1999, which I did somewhere, unless my parents are thrown away, I have boxes of hunting magazines because it drove my wife nuts when we got married. She's like, why do you still have these? And my mother used to always say, just cut out the articles you like and put them in a folder. Then you can just have the articles you like. I'm not going, but I like all the articles. There's two things I don't throw away. Magazines and books. I just don't mean. I just, you know, it made. Like, I've got. I've still got books that I read. Like, I have a picture of myself sitting in a Tree at about 6 years old reading a book. And I still have that book to this day. And so it. But it's. You know, I hoard them. And I always tell people, I said, I'm not really a hoarder unless it comes to hunting and fishing. And then I hoard everything. You know, it's like, everything is in there. But, you know, so I read, you know, so I've been familiar with national watching. But what you're doing in the Women's hunt area. And you know, getting that, that underutilized demographic in into hunting is so exciting and so great to hear. And I think we're about to wrap this up so you can get to your next one. And I know you've got probably have interviews all day today, so you get to say the same thing over and over and over six times.
• 47:42
  Speaker B: Like you, I'm super passionate about it. So I never get tired of talking about it.
• 47:45
  Speaker A: It's fantastic. I'm so excited to watch you grow and go. We'll put it, try to put it in the show notes as well. But it's nationalwildsheepfoundation.org it's just wildsheepfoundation.org wildsheepfoundation.org okay, Google is your friend, but with a quick search, I'm sure you can find it. But it's on the tab there. You can just follow the links in the tab to the women's hunt. And you know, I would encourage everybody listening to this. If you have a woman in your life, which every, every man and every woman does because they've all got a mother, donate and help, help, help them out and help this organization, help this grow and do more. The more money you got. They always say more money, more problems, but more money, more things you can do to help out people. Anyway, it's great to talk to you.
• 48:36
  Speaker B: Likewise.
• 48:36
  Speaker A: It was great talk to you and I look forward to spending some more time with you this weekend while we're down here. And awesome. Maybe we'll catch a fish or shoot some clay pigeons or something like that together.
• 48:44
  Speaker B: Fabulous.
• 48:45
  Speaker A: Thank you very, very much.
• 48:46
  Speaker B: Thank you.
• 48:47
  Speaker A: Have a good day and I'll talk to you later.