2022 Outstanding Bighorn Teacher

Brett Miller is honored by National Bighorn Sheep Center

Brett Miller started teaching VOAG at the Little Snake River Valley school June 2020. He is also the FFA Advisor for ninth through twelfth grade.

This year Miller received the 2022 Outstanding Bighorn Teacher Award at the 29th Annual Bighorn Bash, sponsored by the National Bighorn Sheep Center in Dubois, Wyoming.

The National Bighorn Sheep Center came to be in "remarkable effort of cooperation and partnership." Many entities including the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the town of Dubois, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Wild Sheep Foundation, Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation and many others contributed funds, resources, talent and guidance to construct the National Bighorn Sheep Center which opened on July 3, 1993. More information can be found at bighorn.org.

According to their website, Outstanding Bighorn Teachers consistently work with their students and conservation organizations to inspire and educate youth about wild sheep and the importance of conserving wildlife and wild lands. The experiences they offer provide the fundamental fabric from which Wyomingites are made.

Miller's curriculum also includes other big game species. His students conduct a research project where they choose a species, then find studies by wildlife organizations. They invite the local game warden to speak about numbers of sheep after helicopter counts and other studies. Students use the information to develop a plan of management for their species. Near the end of the class, they draw an assignment out of a hat of a natural occurrence such as bad winter, disease or extreme predations. Plans are then adjusted and a proposal for management of their species is built to include hunting seasons and tag numbers. Students are also required to attend the local season setting meeting hosted by the Game and Fish Department. Survival, orienteering, the history of wildlife management, river structure, sub aquatic insects and a few other topics are also taught if there is extra time.

This year his students went with Game and Fish to help capture and collar sheep. This project is generally for seniors only.

Miller received a Damascus knife scrimshawed with a quote: "putting kids on the mountain" by Dubois artisan, John Finley.

 

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