The United Payette Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee members are elected by the Coalition to serve staggered terms of two or three years and are currently (alpha order):

I grew up in small town Ohio with the woods out my back door. Much of my boyhood was spent exploring these woods. Out of high school I traveled around and discovered the Rocky Mountains.

Four years in the Navy left me ready to get back to the woods so I earned a forestry degree from the University of Florida while working seasonally in the Rockies. Forester jobs were hard to find so I joined the Peace Corps as a forester in Jamaica. I met my wife Lynn there. When we got back to the states I was hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and worked on three reservations before transferring to the Forest Service. I spent the last 20 years as a silviculturist and timber manager on the Payette National Forest.

Lynn and I raised our three kids here and now have three grandkids who visit us in McCall. In retirement, I spend as much time in the woods as possible, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing and kayaking. I joined PELA and United Payette to protect the natural wonders around us for my grandkids and their grandkids and everyone else who needs to get out in the woods

Born and raised in Idaho, Randy spent many of his summer weeks prior to college camping and fishing in and around the North fork of the Big Lost River and Sawtooth Mountains.  Randy moved to the Southwest to attend college, where he obtained his B.S. and M.A. in cultural resource management with an emphasis in archaeology.  He extended his passion for the Southwest and his love of natural spaces and public lands by working as a Grand Canyon river guide, advocating for the protection of our national parks.

Since joining the Idaho Conservation League in 2019, he has advanced his advocacy for public lands and conservation through his contributions to ICL's Public Lands team.  Randy now staffs ICL's West Central Idaho field office in McCall and represents ICL on the Payette Forest Coalition and United Payette, serving as UP's administrator and as a steering team member.

Julie has lives in Idaho with her husband and three children. They love spending time outdoors in every season swimming, biking, skiing, snowshoeing, and hiking with their two Wirehair Pointing Griffons. 

Julie has a background in business law and worked in an international law firm based in Chicago after clerking for a federal judge. She appreciates the value of interdisciplinary solutions to environmental issues. She is also a co-founder of Book It Forward! Idaho, which collects and distributes gently-used books to children who need them. 

Julie greatly enjoys working with people from diverse backgrounds to find solutions that benefit communities and the environment.

I grew up in southeast Idaho and I remember as a child my parents would take us camping and I would always cry when we had to go back home. That emotion has never changed, I love all things outdoors. It is what motivates me to be involved in public land protection issues today.

My wife AJ and I have five grown children and seven grandchildren, and all have a passion for the outdoors. I am an engineering graduate of the University of Idaho (GO VANDALS) and most of my professional career was spent cleaning up nuclear waste from lands and waters at the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls. I led projects that successfully shipped tens of thousands of cubic meters of dangerous waste out of our state. It is an accomplishment I am proud. AJ and I have lived in Idaho our whole lives and in McCall for the past decade plus.

As a native Idahoan with deep family roots in McCall, my appreciation for the lands and nature here only continue to grow. The ability to get into the wilderness out my back door is a gift that inspired me to jump in to support United Payette and do whatever possible to protect these lands and watershed.

My background is in marketing, project management and strategic planning in the corporate world. I disappointed my parents by not going to the U of Idaho, but instead graduated from the U of Utah undergrad and the U of Washington business school. I’ve served as a community volunteer including school boards, Bogus Basin Board, American Heart Association, Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation, Idaho Shakespeare Festival Board, Brundage Mountain and the Ponderosa Center. I live in McCall with my husband, Walt and my son Sam lives in Montana.

This has certainly been a change from my past and yet it’s apparent to me how it all works together to help support this effort. It’s a pleasure to work with this diverse group and it’s amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish in less than a year together!

I was born and raised in Evergreen, Colorado a mountain town west of Denver. So, I’m no stranger to the issues faced by developing mountain towns. I received a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Colorado State University and owned a 300-head cow-calf ranching operation in the Sandhills of Nebraska for 13 years.

While in Nebraska I became involved with a variety of private land conservation programs, most notably the Leopold Conservation Award presented by the Sand County Foundation

In 2006, I moved to McCall and was hired as a USFS firefighter on an engine stationed in Warren. I thought I would fight fire for one year and then go back to graduate school. The next year I was hired on as a member of the Krassel crew and started rappelling out of helicopters.

After eleven summers, I never made it back to school. During my winters off from fire, I worked for the National Science Foundation at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica for three seasons. I began with the Payette Land Trust in the fall of 2017 as a part time Executive Director and am now full-time. I continued to work with the Sand County Foundation, coordinating the Nebraska Leopold Conservation Award and helping provide aviation and fire support when needed. 

Having been involved with environmental and conservation-based non-profit work for over 25 years, I appreciate of the importance of collaboration.