Board of directors
President - Charli Williams, Executive Director, Lemhi Regional Land Trust
The seventh generation born into a southern Utah ranch family, Charli seized the opportunity returned to the valley her family has called home since 1999 and joined LRLT’s staff in 2011 after receiving a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science, Communications and Leadership from the University of Idaho. Her first twelve years at LRLT were focused on financial management and communications, and in 2023 she moved into the role of Executive Director.
As Executive Director she works closely with the Board of Directors and oversees all facets of LRLT’s operations including the office, staff, budget, fundraising, conservation and stewardship programs.
Charli is also a leader with the Lemhi County 4-H program, where she leads market beef, market lamb, breeding sheep and cooking projects and is the treasurer for the Lemhi County Junior Livestock Program.
Vice President - Heath Mann, Executive Director, Sagebrush Steppe Land Trust
A native of rural central Nebraska, Heath has lived in Pocatello since February of 1995. After studying Business Management and Speech Communications at the University of Nebraska, he earned a BS in Zoology from Idaho State University. He has a diverse professional and volunteer background, including small business ownership (Mountain Mann Bicycles), project planning, management, and capitol campaign direction.
Heath is a passionate supporter of the natural world, regularly participating in mountain biking, downhill and cross-country skiing, camping, and sailing. He has been a Senior member, Instructor of OEC, Team Leader, and Candidate Class Coordinator of the Pebble Creek Ski Patrol for 26 years. While owning Mountain Mann Bicycles, Heath has been a strong advocate for responsible use of local multi-use trails, including rider education and technical skills training.
Past President - lovina englund, Executive Director, palouse land trust
Growing up in farm and ranch country in eastern Oregon, Lovina roamed around the West until she found her home on the Palouse in 2003. Nature is weaved into the very fabric of her core, and time spent outdoors is her greatest delight. She joined the Idaho Coalition of Land Trusts executive committee in 2020.
Fueled by energy and enthusiasm for accelerating land conservation across north-central Idaho and eastern Washington, she entered the Idaho land trust community in 2018. Sharing stories of the land and getting to know people with vision and passion for conservation and community is the best part of her job.
A graduate of the University of Idaho with degrees in rangeland ecology and management (BS ’04, MS ’07), Lovina came into local land conservation with over a decade of experience. Before joining the Palouse Land Trust, she spent 10 years with the University of Idaho Rangeland Center supporting the transfer of science into the hands of those who care for the land, teaching and mentoring the next generation, and coordinating field data collection for the Natural Resources Inventory program across Idaho. She also worked as a conservation planner for the Palouse Conservation District, providing technical expertise to local farmers and ranchers, and managing projects related to fire recovery, conservation tillage, riparian restoration, and salmon recovery across southeastern Washington.
In her free time, she enjoys every opportunity to lace up her hiking boots or running shoes, pedal backroads and trails, read, explore new destinations, stop and look at flowers blooming or take in a view, tinker in the kitchen, and share a meal or a social spell with her favorite people. She lives in Moscow and shares adventures with her husband Karl and daughter Sienna.
secretary Katie Cox, Executive Director, Kaniksu Land Trust
Katie’s love of nature was cultivated during her youth growing up in the wilds of Idaho. A true Idaho girl, summers were spent swimming in lakes, backpacking into the Frank Church Wilderness and taking long drives through the wheat fields of the Palouse. Born and raised in Moscow and Elk City, Idaho, Katie has always believed that spending time in nature is integral to one’s growth. She and her husband, Brian, believe in cultivating these same values and traditions in their three young girls. Katie and Brian are proud to be raising fifth generation Idahoans.
Katie received her B.S. in Education from the University of Idaho and a Masters in Architecture from the University of Washington. Thus far, Katie has focused her professional life in the fields of Education and Architecture, with a particular interest in building community.
In 2019, Katie set a new course when she became the Executive Director at Kaniksu Land Trust in Sandpoint. KLT leads with a strong focus in community conservation which weaves directly into Katie's past experience in community-centered education and design. She is proud to help save beautiful lands in North Idaho and Northwest Montana and support the communities who call these places home.
treasurer Tess O’Sullivan, Land Conservation Strategy Lead, The Nature Conservancy
Tess is the Land Conservation Strategy Lead for The Idaho Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. As a dedicated conservation professional with over 20 years of experience, Tess brings expertise in conservation easements, botany, ecology, wildlife migration, public funding for conservation, ecological monitoring, and partnerships. She currently works on landscape scale land conservation efforts throughout the state. Prior to her work with TNC, she worked for Lava Lake Land & Livestock, a ranch dedicated to stewarding and improving the land and to raising high quality grass-fed lamb sold direct to customers. In addition to making a difference for Idaho, Tess enjoys connecting with plants and trying to keep up with her tireless husky and very active kids in the mountains.
Director, Kim Trotter, Executive Director, Teton Regional Land Trust
Kim Trotter is the Executive Director at the Teton Regional Land Trust. For more than three decades, Kim has helped conserve agricultural lands, fish and wildlife habitat, and sustainable communities in Idaho and the Northern Rockies. Her background includes biodiversity conservation, environmental policy, wildlife and large landscape ecology, land and water transactions, and ecological connectivity and restoration.
Kim received her Master of Environmental Management in resource ecology from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Puget Sound.
Director, Chris Colson, Executive Director, Land Trust of the Treasure Valley
As Executive Director for the Land Trust of the Treasure Valley, Chris is excited to finally be dedicating his professional energy to his backyard landscapes. A Boise resident for more than 20 years, Chris spends much of his time riding, skiing, cooking, old man soccering, and kiddo coaching. He is joined in those pursuits by his wife, two daughters, one bunny, and an entitled cat that is currently for sale.
David Weinstein - Director at-large, Associate Vice President and Northern Rockies Director, Trust for Public Land
David Weinstein is the Associate Vice President and Northern Rockies Director for Trust for Public Land. He works to create parks and protect land in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. David joined TPL in 2013, where prior to his role as Northern Rockies Director, served as the organization’s Western Conservation Finance Director, advising local and state governments throughout the Western United States how to design, pass, and implement legislative initiatives and ballot measures that create funding for land and water conservation and climate-smart solutions. A Wyss Foundation Fellow and Coloradoan, David has been involved in conservation politics and policy for more than 15 years, formerly working for Outdoor Industry Association, U.S. Senator Mark Udall, and on Colorado Governor Hickenlooper’s first gubernatorial campaign. He sits on the Bozeman Parks Foundation board and previously served on boards for the Montana Conservation Corps, Alaska Wilderness League, and the National Parks Conservation Association NextGen Board.
David lives in Bozeman, MT and is an avid backcountry skier, mountain biker, boater, angler, runner, backpacker, birder, and packrafter.
Paul Sihler - Director at-large, Retired Conservation Professional
Paul Sihler retired as the Deputy Director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) after a 30-year career working in environmental policy, fish and wildlife management and private land conservation.
Paul began his professional career at the environmental office of the Montana Legislature. He staffed the House and Senate Natural Resource Committees and drafted natural resource and environmental legislation. He led interim legislative studies on solid waste management, hazardous waste management and lakeshore development. The solid waste management study produced 9 bills enacted by the 1991 Legislature that modernized all aspects of the state’s solid waste management program.
In 1995, Paul was as a staff member to the FWP Director. Much of his work involved convening and facilitating collaborative processes, including the Governor’s Whirling Disease Task Force, the Governor’s Bull Trout Restoration Team, and a work group of the Governor’s Private Lands/Public Wildlife Council. He also worked with the FWP Commission to develop a governance-by-policy approach to commission-department relations and lobbied the legislature on behalf of the department.
Later, as a Division Administrator, Paul oversaw was the department’s real estate staff, which completed 30-40 real estate transactions per year, including fee title acquisitions of wildlife management areas as large as 40,000 acres and conservation easements including a 140,000 acres easement on Plum Creek timber land. His staff also monitored the department’s 80 conservation easements.
In 2000, Paul was FWP’s designee to participate in the initial foundation-led discussions that resulted in the decision by land trusts in the region to form the Heart of the Rockies Initiative (HOTR). Inspired by the vision of connecting the landscape from the Yukon to Yellowstone, he applied for and was hired as the HOTR’s first Partnership Coordinator. During his five years in that role, he led the planning efforts to develop conservation plans and 10-year goals for the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems. He also convened and organized Montana land trusts to form the Montana Association of Land trusts in response to anti-easement threats in the legislature, raised $1.3M of foundation funding, administered an annual $145,000 capacity-building regrant program and helped the HOTR incubate the concept for a captive insurance product that became LTA’s Terra Firma easement defense program.
Paul’s wife died of cancer in 2015. Their daughter lives in Juneau, AK where she works for the Juneau Food Bank while completing a master’s degree in public health. In need of a change, Paul moved to Boise in April 2023, and spends as much time as possible hiking, camping, traveling and photographing wildlife and landscapes.
Contractors
Kyle Barber, Agricultural Easement Subject Matter Expert
Kyle's breadth of experience with ALE since 2010 is extensive. He's managed and supervised all aspects of Bitter Root Land Trust's (BRLT) conservation easement and fee title acquisitions leading to a ten-fold increase in conserved acreage including more than four dozen conservation transactions.
He significantly increased the pace, quality and professionalism of BRLT's conservation program in a complex, politically sensitive community and has developed and fostered strong relationships with a diverse array of local, state, federal and nonprofit conservation partners, including the NRCS, United States Forest Service, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, Montana Association of Land Trusts, Heart of the Rockies, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and many others.
In his time there, he established BRLT as a regional and national leader on relevant statutory, regulatory, and policy requirements of the Farm & Ranchland Protection Program, the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program. He has managed or supervised the succesful completion of more than a dozen ALE Conservation Easements, and left the organization with a deep pipeline of ten additional ALE and RCPP projects obligated and in active development.
Kyle and his family live in Hamilton, Montana.