Thomas Baumeister is the vice chair and capital leader for Montana BHA. In recent months, Thomas has spent an incredible amount of time researching, crafting and delivering testimony and comments on behalf of the chapter on various wildlife management issues, ranging from elk to pheasants to mountain lions.
Montana's biannual season-setting process looked unlike any other this year, including a six-month process, never-before-seen changes and bold attempts to privatize and commercialize our wildlife. Thomas deserves a ton of credit for bringing early attention to the "bulls for billionaires" program, for analyzing the data around landowner permits, and for helping create a "firestorm" of public comment that helped right the ship, leading FWP to throw out the most egregious of the elk proposals, though we still have work to do. Often sitting in all-day meetings to finally be given the chance to provide three minutes of testimony, we can't overstate how much time Thomas has put in lately. We're forever grateful for his efforts.
Additionally, Thomas donated the use of his pack llamas from Access Wild for a recent fundraiser for the chapter. He hopes to offer a llama-packing seminar at #Rende2022 as well, but we're still awaiting approval from the city of Missoula on that.
Thomas worked for the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks for two decades before joining the board of Montana BHA. He holds two masters and a Ph.D. in Biology and Wildlife Biology. He wears out a pair of boots each fall chasing elk and upland birds. He's smart, experienced and passionate - the epitome of a BHA chapter leader, and we're lucky to have him.
If you see a tall guy walking around Rendezvous with llamas, there's a good chance it's Thomas; so please congratulate him on being BHA's North American Member of the Month, and thank him for his relentless volunteer efforts.
