The preserve, which stretches across some 60 square miles of the Osage Hills, is owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy, a private conservation group.
The Nature Conservancy, a private conservation organisation that owns most of the island, decided in the 1980s to shoot the sheep, even though they were a rare breed.
The state will pay the bulk of the cost, and the Nature Conservancy, a private conservation group, has agreed to contribute $10 million, pending a vote by its national board.
The new Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area brings together multiple state and federal government agencies, private conservation groups like The Nature Conservancy and local ranchers.
Private conservation areas were especially important in conserving lower elevation habitat, and by association, endangered vegetation.
But though it calls itself the largest private conservation group in the world, the Nature Conservancy, based in Arlington, Va., has a bit of an awareness problem, according to Nancy Crozier, the director for brand marketing.
Mr. Sawhill became head of the conservancy, which describes itself as the world's largest private conservation group, in January 1990.
It was housed in a private conservation facility for six years, where the artefacts were painstakingly conserved (including desalination), studied, and carefully restored by Walterfang's company, Seabed Explorations Ltd. of New Zealand.
He described the talk as "a private conservation between them" that he could not discuss.
It is believed to be the largest private conservation acquisition in state history.
So the future for private conservation in Africa will increasingly be in drier, remoter areas.
