By Anderson Smith, RMEF Director of Development
Between RMEF’s 1,000 Trails Society members, the numbers are surely staggering, of miles put on trucks in the fall seasons, sleepless nights in wind-torn tents, camp coffees made, fires stoked. These lifetimes of moments both slip into the ether as “time-passed,” and conversely, are also cemented into stories, ethos and legacy. Our time is tallied differently outdoors, where in the mountains all seem to stand still. We could count nights at camp by the number of ember holes burned in our sleeping bags and count days afield by the scratches on our gun stocks.
Last year in early fall, I took my 12-year-old son grouse hunting to celebrate the completion of his week-long Montana Hunter Education course. We climbed old timber roads in the Garnet Range, and he toted my grandfather’s 20-gauge. Our start was early, but it turned hot when the sun crested the peaks and put its full weight down through blue skies. The timber road climbed in quarter-mile switchbacks, mostly open country from recent fire, and we aimed to reach the ridge where stands of aspen were visible. Near the top, we caught the eye of a 6×6 bull just a stone’s throw from where we stood. As surprised as we were, the lone bull, tall in a stand of spruce, wheeled around and crashed through the timber with a sound akin to thunder rolling down the mountain. Heart racing and disheveled, my son tripped and caught the firearm on the edge of a broken limb—a deep scratch in the wood stock to remember that day afield.
Regardless of how we count time, we understand that our adventures, fall seasons and youth do come and go; for that matter, we come and go. But it’s hardly sullen to remember these stories and consider our legacy at any point, just ask an RMEF Trails Society member. At 1,000 strong, there are many stories, and for decades, some of those stories have graced Bugle’s “Lasting Legacies” department. These profiles captured a wide range of personalities, but with a distinct throughline of a shared passion for RMEF and desire to leave something for coming generations.
Take the story of Trails Society Member Rose Haroian, a solo public land hunter in her 60s, living in an eastern Wyoming county with an equal number of people to elk. In 2022, Rose reached out to let RMEF know about her estate plans. “I just think RMEF does great stuff for conservation,” she says. “When I’m on my deathbed, I don’t want to say, ‘You know, I wish I would have done this. I wish I would have done that.’ Because then it’s too late.” At the same time in 2022, just over the spine of the Laramie Range from where Rose hunts, RMEF closed on a 6,600-acre land protection and access project called Mule Creek. Two years later, RMEF conveyed 2,600 acres to the state, and 4,000 acres to the 88 Ranch with a conservation and access easement, both ways ensuring that Mule Creek is conserved and open for public hunting. This project is the epitome of why members like Rose support RMEF, for today, and for tomorrow.
In 2013 in Montana, RMEF member George Looker wanted to make sure that his passion extended beyond his lifetime. George joined RMEF in January 1986, shortly after he attended the first RMEF convention in Spokane. A mount he had read about in Outdoor Life was going to be displayed there, and he wanted to see it. He continued his membership throughout his lifetime, usually renewing in person in RMEF’s Visitor Center. “I decided that elk hunting meant more to me than anything all my life, so I should give back.” George made a planned gift to RMEF, passing in 2017, but ultimately leaving the organization in a better place. For RMEF in 2017, the beat went on, completing 43 projects, including a headlining voluntary conservation agreement (VCA, also known as a conservation easement) on one of the most important properties in the U.S. The 549-acre project known as Mineral Hill is located on the northern border of Yellowstone National Park, resting at an elevation which overlooks the iconic Mammoth Hot Springs. The value of this project could not be overstated, attracting congressmen and other dignitaries for a ceremony to punctuate its closing. Trails Society members like George make RMEF possible, which in turn makes these projects possible.
In the state of New York, drop a pin 2 miles south of Quebec and 2 miles west of the Chateauguay River, that’s about where you’d find the home of the late Stan and Dana Gilligan. It’s a bucolic landscape on the edge of the Adirondack Mountains, where in the kinder months, white-tailed deer have their choice of wild apples, honeysuckle and acorns. Paper birch trees are a favorite target to thrash in the rut, and soon again to eat in a harsh winter. Stan and Dana were not only partners in life but also partners afield. Sometimes they would bowhunt from the same stand, other times split to hunt in different directions. Stan fashioned his own bows, quivers and arrows, fletched with feathers from turkeys that his brother had hunted. In 1977, he took his first trip west for elk, then soon after with Dana. They were changed.
Elk hunts in Colorado connected Stan and Dana with RMEF, first becoming members in 1992, then Life Members in 2000. From a shared passion, they decided to commit a sizable portion of their estate to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
Dana and Stan both passed away in 2019, only two months apart from each other. I read Stan’s online obituary and couldn’t help but smile from the comments. “We have many stories shared over campfires and archery memories” … “Memories of motorcycles, guns, hunting and jokes” … “You were a good man and true outdoorsman” … “Loved listening to his dirty jokes and stories about hunting” … “To the man who got me into hand-loading ammo back in the early 70s” … “Hunting, archery, guns, bikes … we talked about it all … so long hound dog.”
The Chateauguay River of Gilligans’ home flows north from the heart of the Adirondacks. These mountains are unique in the sense that they are made of billion-year-old rock, but the uplift causing their elevation is relatively new in the scale of time. People have referred to the Adirondacks as “new mountains from old rocks,” which I can’t but think of the word “legacy.” As Trails Society members, legacy is what Stan and Dana have created for conservation, an enduring impact left behind, or, new mountains from old rocks.
It’s fitting that RMEF’s first recorded planned gift and Trails Society Members were from Libby, Montana. In 1989 at the young age of 42, Roger Heemeier sadly passed away from cancer. His obituary requested donations to be given to RMEF, and shortly after his passing, his wife Abbe gifted a generous contribution from his life insurance policy. “He taught this ‘bunny-hugger’ from Connecticut how to shoot and hunt,” explained Abbe, when I reached her by phone to better understand their story. Roger and Abbe moved to Libby from Colorado, where they married and started hunting together. In Libby, Abbe recalls knowing the founders Charlie Decker and Bob Munson, meeting outdoor legend Jim Zumbo and attending the first RMEF events. Abbe is a Life Member, but forwards Bugle magazine to her son who is an avid hunter, and is now teaching his daughter to hunt, the personification of legacy, you might say.
This summer, RMEF’s Trails Society crossed the 1,000-member milestone with a commitment from Joyce Sheets of Tampa, Florida. We first heard from Joyce when her husband Charles passed away in 2023, wanting to make a reoccurring memorial contribution from her IRA to support what Charles loved. RMEF is now listed in her living trust for a planned gift, a way to further honor Charles and what they shared. “Charles was an avid elk hunter. When he was no longer able to hunt, we’d go look for elk just to continue that tradition,” Joyce says.
With Joyce’s gift, it’s a time to celebrate 1,000 Trails Society members, but also a time to set new ambitious benchmarks so that conservation has a whole cadre of supporters behind it far into the future.