Each year, The Wildlife Center at Legends Ranch awards a $5,000 scholarship to two Michigan undergraduate students with proven dedication to the WLC’s Mission. The scholarship has recently been renamed the “Daniel F. Rosman Wildlife Conservation Scholarship” to honor past Legends Ranch employee Dan Rosman for his many years of commitment to conservation and education. Dan is responsible for building The Wildlife Center into what it is today, having curated and installed a majority of the mounts we display. Without Dan’s hard work, The Wildlife Center would not be the magnificent educational foundation it currently is.

The mission of the Daniel F. Rosman Wildlife Conservation Scholarship is to encourage and promote conservation in Michigan’s wildlife, animal science, hunting, and agriculture university programs. Each year’s scholarship recipients are two outstanding Michigan undergraduate students that distinguish themselves through academic excellence and their passion for the outdoors. This scholarship gives students financial support to pursue entrepreneurship and careers in the hunting and conservation industry.

The Wildlife Center hosted two wild game dinners per month in January through May of this year. Proceeds from the events went to a different highlighted program each month. These dinners are exciting affairs, including:

• January’s highlighted program was our First-Time Hunter Program. During this event, our dedicated staff will guide a first-time hunter through an exciting day learning the basics of hunting, culminating in the harvesting and packing of a doe.
• February’s dinners supported bus transportation for school tours. In the first quarter of 2023, The Wildlife Center brought in over 2,200 students for tours and hikes through the Legends Ranch property. During the tours, students learned about our mission of wildlife conservation through hunting.
• March’s proceeds helped fund the Daniel F. Rosman Wildlife 
Conservation Scholarship. The mission of this scholarship is to encourage and promote the conservation of wildlife through hunting. Scholarship recipients are two outstanding Michigan undergraduate students that distinguish themselves through academic excellence and their passion for the outdoors.
• April’s dinners benefited our Youth Challenge Hunt. The Youth Challenge Hunt gives children from various walks of life the opportunity to enter the woods, perhaps for the first time, to experience hunting and fishing. We make great efforts to remove life’s difficult barriers while attending this hunt. During this event dreams are realized, relationships fostered, and lives are forever changed.

May’s dinners will benefit our new and upcoming Veteran’s Retreat. For this event, we will host nine veterans with with a guest of their choice at Legends Ranch. During their time here, the veterans will hike around the property, take part in skeet shooting, and receive tours of The Wildlife Center and the Gutierrez Cervid Company breeding facility. They will also go on a rafting trip down the Pere Marquette River.

The return of the 2023 DSC Convention and Sporting Expo January 5-8 to Dallas at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center brought with it record attendance, dollars raised and energy in support of the DSC mission of Conservation, Education and Advocacy.

In January 2023 we were able to officially begin our School Tour program at The Wildlife Center at Legends Ranch. With over 30 schools signed up for the program, we will have close to 3,000 students come from area schools and experience the conservation curriculum at The Wildlife Center at Legends Ranch.

During their visit, the students get to experience the 24,000 square-foot facility housing over 3,000 taxidermy animals from all over the world. The Wildlife Center staff takes the students through a 15 station conservation curriculum and each student will receive a Wildlife Center passport to take home. As part of the school tour, the students will also get to experience either snowshoeing during the winter or a nature walk during the spring on our 1.1 mile trail through Legends hunting grounds. The students finish their outside adventure with eating lunch around the fire.

The teachers and students from each school that has visited The Wildlife Center have enjoyed this experience immensely! We look forward to hosting these school tours annually.

Arthur Gutierrez, owner of Legends Ranch in Bitely, MI, was awarded the prestigious Beretta & SCI Foundation Conservation Leadership Award at the Foundation’s annual gala in Nashville, TN earlier this year. The Gala is SCI Foundation’s largest fundraiser of the year, and it features the award ceremony, a gourmet dinner, and entertainment. Money raised from this event contributes to SCI Foundation’s wildlife conservation and outdoor education programs. 

This award highlights individuals that represent the ultimate embodiment of the hunter-conservationist philosophy, contributing to conservation, education and humanitarian services in both time and financial resources. Arthur is well known for his life-long commitment to wildlife conservation and outdoor education through volunteer service and philanthropy, and is very honored to have been recognized through this award.