Years ago as a stupid fresh college grad, I worked for the US Forest Service as a summer intern. I co-authored a study that showed that bighorn sheep were NOT limited by availability of lambing habitat.

This was a political hot button issue that pitted hunters against cattlemen. Cattlemen claimed that the sheep were not getting brucellosis from their cows and that the sheep populations were indeed limited by lambing habitat.

I was very surprised when, 15 years later, I visited the same ranger station to say hello and that same study was still being used as evidence in hearings to undercut the claims of the cattlemen that they didn’t need to vaccinate their cows to protect the sheep. That felt really good.