Team
Board of Directors
Our organization is managed by a board of volunteers. It is people donating their time for the cause that gets work done. We all care immensely for helping landowners and the public leave their legacy of scenic open spaces for future generations. We look forward to meeting you.
Jennifer Duplisea
Board Member
Matthew Ganz
Board Member
Ryan Thomasson
Board Member
Rick Fereday
President
Steve Millemann
Non-voting Member at Large
Gary Thompson
Treasurer
Jim Fronk
Vice President
Suzanne Rainville
Executive Committee
Bob Vosskuhler
Board Member
Payette Land Trust Staff
Craig Utter
Executive Director
Sonya Mapp
Community Outreach & Program Manager
Lean more about the PLT Board and Staff
Jennifer Duplisea
Jennifer is a fifth generation Idaho native. She returned to her home State of Idaho and settled in McCall in 2019 after having lived throughout the western and mountain United States and Australia.
Jennifer’s career focused on the construction industry, primarily on large civil infrastructure project business management, business development, contract negotiations, liaison with governmental agencies, oversight on contract administration, though her work also led her in renovating historic mansions into Class A commercial office space.
Jennifer retired in 2011 and has since enjoyed her homes in Wyoming, California and again in Idaho where she enjoys spending time in the Idaho backcountry in pursuits of writing, hiking, backpacking, fishing, and hunting. Jennifer is an avid golfer and enjoys skiing. She has served on several Boards and committees in Valley and Adams Counties and has supported Covenant House California Los Angeles and currently volunteers with and supports CASA Canyon County.
Jennifer has great care and concern for her home State of Idaho and is working to protect its wildness, rugged wilderness, historical agriculture, ranching and rural communities, and high quality of life.
Rick Fereday
Rick is a lifelong resident of Idaho. After regularly visiting the McCall area from his home in Boise as a child, he moved to McCall permanently after college in 1974. The outdoors, especially our incredible backcountry, has been an important focus for him ever since.
Joining the Payette Land Trust in 2008 was a natural progression. Having seen the changes in Valley County for 40+ years he has developed a passion to protect open spaces, water and wildlife. Rick also likes to jump in and get his hands into the dirt to maintain and enhance properties within the trust.
Jim Fronk
Jim has 34 years of experience in civil design, project management, land development, land planning, and environmental science expertise. Jim specializes in the entitlement land use process, feasibility studies, environmental permitting, wetland delineation, water quality, and environmental issues.
Jim’s past experience includes 25 years of working and living in Central Idaho. For 15 years he has acted as Principal and President of Secesh Engineering Inc. Secesh Engineering Inc. a firm at one time employed up to 25 personnel that was instrumental in the completion of numerous significant engineering projects in Valley and Adams County and throughout the state of Idaho. Jim has extensive experience with State and Federal Agencies and interaction with associated staff.
Jim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from Texas Tech University and is a Licensed Landscape Architect in the State of Idaho. Jim is a certified wetland delineator with the U.S Army Corps of Engineers.
Matthew Ganz
Matthew Ganz, a 20-year Valley County resident, came to McCall in 2001 with his wife Ellen, to work as a smokejumper protecting the natural world he cherishes. In the years that have followed Matthew has started and operated multiple successful local businesses, fostering a strong network of relationships both locally and regionally. Matthew has volunteered in the place he is most passionate about, the outdoors; whether on foot, skis, mountain, or dirt bike, maintaining and advocating for the vast network of public trails and wild places in the area. The Payette Land Trusts mission aligns with Matthew’s core belief that the best results come to fruition when communities of people come together united in their efforts, and that preserving the natural and rural character of this amazing landscape is something we can all work towards together.
Steve Millemann
After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon and his law degree from the University of Southern California, Steve started his legal career as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow with the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund in the coal fields of Eastern Kentucky.
There, he spent three years representing retired miners and widows in federal court litigation against the United Mine Workers Health and Retirement Funds. Having been raised in the west, Steve and his wife, Ingri, then returned to the west and made their home in McCall, where Steve founded the firm Millemann, Pittenger & Pemberton in 1980.
He has appeared on multiple occasions before the Idaho Supreme Court and has presented appeals to the United States Circuit Courts of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit and District of Columbia Circuit. Steve has served on the Board of the Payette Land Trust since its inception in 1992 and spent twenty years as its President.
Ryan Thomasson
Ryan has a degree in Industrial Technology Management and has worked in multiple states for a diverse set of companies. Wherever Ryan has settled he has taken the time to become an active member of the community.
In Seattle, he sat as the vice president for his community water board. Upon moving to Illinois he served as a trustee for the Village of Port Barrington, a recreational-based community located outside of Chicago with walking, biking, and snowmobile trails, boating, fishing, and several parks and marinas within its boundaries. As Village Trustee he also oversaw streets and roads, working closely with the public works director to ensure the roads met the needs of the village residents. As a member of the planning commission, he helped to guide the future direction of Port Barrington by reviewing approved use and conditional use permit requests to ensure they were in line with the recreational community values of Port Barrington.
Ryan and his wife, Kristi, have developed a deep connection with Valley County over the past five years and have a great interest in helping to conserve the West Central Mountains they now call home.
Suzanne Rainville
Suzanne grew up in Wisconsin and received a BS in Natural Resources/Forestry from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and completed a MS Degree in Forestry from the University of Idaho.
Suzanne worked for the Forest Service for over 33 years and retired as Forest Supervisor of the Payette National Forest where she served for 5 years. Throughout her career, she balanced different resource needs and legal responsibilities by bringing people together to discuss interests, find common ground and develop solutions.
Since retirement in 2011, Suzanne serves on several boards and committees including Girl Scouts, Homeowners Association, and McCall Rotary Club. She enjoys anything outdoors including gardening, hiking, biking, backpacking, kayaking, and skiing. She also finds time to volunteer to teach English to immigrants and refugees. She loves the uniqueness of Central Idaho and has called the Snake, Salmon and Payette River Basins her home for 28 years.
Gary Thompson
A native South Carolinian, Gary, and his family are now permanent residents of McCall. Upon graduating with distinction from the Darla S. Moore School of Accounting at the University of South Carolina, Gary began a 20-year career in the world of accounting as a CPA and a partner of an international accounting firm. There he specialized in providing services to international construction/engineering companies. Additionally, he became a nationally recognized lecture in that area of accounting. In 1992 Gary joined an international investment firm and, until his retirement in 2016, provided investment advice to a variety of clients throughout the United States for 24 years.
His community and civic roles include multi-year involvement in both conservation easement and historic preservation efforts. The conservation easement efforts included approximately 30,000 acres in South Carolina described in a biological assessment as displaying “impressive national treasures” and “the most significant wilderness area remaining in South Carolina”. The effort resulted in a “permanent conservation easement, thereby creating the largest area of land in the Eastern United States- and the fourth largest in the nation- to be granted conservation easements (Blagden & Wyche, 1994)
Additionally, Gary is a decorated Viet Nam veteran serving in the USAir Force.
Robert J. Vosskuhler
Bob grew up in the Midwest and graduated from Marquette University. He completed an Internship and Surgical Residency at the United States Naval Hospital, San Diego.
Bob is married to Susan Kuras Vosskuhler and they have two sons and three grandchildren. Bob served in the United States Navy for 26 years retiring in 1991. Bob then spent 12 years (1991-2003) in the medical device industry.
Bob serves on the Board of the Payette Land Trust and St. Luke’s McCall Memorial Hospital. Bob skis, kayaks, hikes, sails, and bikes.
Craig Utter
Craig was born and raised in the town of Evergreen on the eastern slope of Colorado, so he is no stranger to the issues faced by developing mountain towns. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Colorado State University. He owned and operated a 300-head cow-calf ranching operation in the Sandhills of Nebraska for 13 years. During this time, he was involved with the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association and eventually chaired their Natural Resources and Environment Committee. Simultaneously, he became involved with a variety of private land conservation programs, most notably the Leopold Conservation Award presented by the Sand County Foundation. Craig was instrumental in bringing this prestigious national private land stewardship award to Nebraska. Much of the success of the Nebraska award can be attributed to the collaboratives he helped facilitate between private landowners and a diverse group of stakeholders.
In 2006, he 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,” Craig said “Then I was hired on as a member of the Krassel Helitck crew and rappelled out of a helicopter. That was eleven summers ago, never made it back to school.” He remained on the helicopter crew from 2007 until 2017.
During his winters off from fighting fire, he continued to work with the Sand County Foundation, coordinating the Nebraska Leopold Conservation Award from McCall. Craig has also worked 3 seasons in Antarctica for the National Science Foundation. Two seasons as a fixed-wing cargo specialist and one year as a helicopter crew member.
Craig brings almost 20 years of environmental and conservation-based non-profit experience and a strong understanding of the importance of collaboration.
Spot Light McCall
An interview with PLT’s Executive Director