Contacts:
Justin Hayes, Executive Director, (208) 345-6933 x 124.
Randy Fox, Conservation Associate, (208) 345-6933 x 110.
ICL to open new office to support communities in
West Central Idaho
BOISE — The Idaho Conservation League is excited to announce a new field office in the West Central region of Idaho. The office will serve communities from Cascade to Riggins to Cambridge, and will better support our engagement with the communities of the West Central Mountains.
ICL has worked on conservation issues in West Central Idaho for decades, including on public lands, wildlife, water quality, and more. ICL’s work has expanded and accelerated in recent years in response to Midas Gold’s Stibnite Project, near the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, and a proposed exchange or sale of state endowment lands around McCall and Payette Lake.
A full-time staff member will work from the McCall-based office, which allows ICL to have an on-the-ground presence to enhance engagement and responsiveness to communities on conservation issues of local concern. Randy Fox, ICL’s conservation associate and a member of its Public Lands team, has been selected to fill the position. ICL’s West Central office will be up and running by the end of March 2021.
“We look forward to deepening our existing relationships with local ICL members and supporters and forming new partnerships to protect what makes this area so special — its mosaic of private and public lands, outdoor recreation, clean water, wildlife, and the diverse communities and people who call this place home,” said ICL’s Executive Director Justin Hayes.
“Our hope is that ICL’s local presence allows us to better assist and supplement the great work of people and organizations in the area who are passionate about our shared priorities and goals,” added Hayes. “The old adage of ‘a rising tide floats all boats’ is true and I look forward to using the opportunity of opening a local ICL office to advance conservation goals and contribute towards creating a larger, more impactful conservation community.”
“I’m excited about living in a region that includes small mountain and valley communities,” Randy Fox stated. “And I’m looking forward to meeting people as they drop by the office and I travel across the region to have a cup of coffee with them (post-pandemic), listen to their concerns, and together explore solutions to ensure that this part of Idaho retains the recreation opportunities and ecosystem diversity that make the region so special.”
Fox is an Idaho native who has an M.A. in cultural resource management and was a professional archaeologist in the Southwest. He also worked for 11 years as a timber framer for San Juan Timberwrights, a company focused on using recycled timbers. He has served as a volunteer First Responder Medic and firefighter, and before joining ICL in 2019, he shared his passion and love of natural spaces and public lands by working as a river guide in the Grand Canyon.
ICL has been working with partners on the Payette Forest Coalition for over ten years to increase the pace and scale of forest and watershed restoration, and address recreation and wildlife needs. Rapid growth in the area over the past decade has highlighted the need to find lasting solutions for conservation issues that respond to concerns of Idahoans who live in or recreate in the area. ICL staff spend an increasing amount of time in Idaho’s West Central region engaging with federal, state, and local agencies and organizations to advocate for clean air, clean water, and public land and wildlife protections.
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