After four and a half years at the helm, Geoff Pampush resigned suddenly last Thursday, April 7, from his post as director of the Idaho branch of The Nature Conservancy.
The move was not something expected from inside The Nature Conservancy, said Lou Lunte, the Idaho branch's interim director.
"It was sudden," Lunte said.
But Pampush explained it this way: "If you're going to resign when you're the director, you don't want to signal that to your staff because it creates an anxious environment, in my opinion. I talked it over with my boss."
TNC-Idaho was born in the Sun Valley area, with the organization's purchase of Silver Creek Preserve near Picabo. TNC-Idaho went on to purchase 16 preserves, totaling 13,400 acres. The agency holds 20,000 acres in easements, including 9,000 acres at Silver Creek.
Pampush was the second director to assume the helm of TNC-Idaho. The first director, Guy Bonnevier, resigned in 2000 for reasons that were never fully explained.
As he did when Bonnevier resigned, Lunte is taking the reins in the interim. Lunte, the director of conservation programs, has been with the Idaho chapter for 16 years.
"We'll probably launch the recruitment process in a couple of weeks, and we expect, if history is a guide, in three to six months to find a new director," Lunte said.
Pampush said the reason he is moving on is because a new director will bring new ideas to the agency.
"I've always been of a mind, after five years, a director gets all of his or her best ideas out there," he said. "You kind of hit a plateau after that. I've always felt it's inappropriate for a director to get into a position and cruise."
It is clear, according to Lunte, that Pampush was instrumental in moving TNC-Idaho forward.
"I'd have to say there was quite a lot accomplished in those four and a half years (that Pampush was director)," Lunte said.
He ticked through a number of projects in which Pampush played a role. The agency protected sage grouse habitat near Dubois. It worked with the state to address the state's growing noxious weed problems.
"We have been an integral part of the Owyhee Initiative in Owyhee County to address an assortment of resource issues with a number of collaborators," Lunte said.
During his tenure with TNC, Pampush lived and worked in the Wood River Valley. He said he and his wife plan to move somewhere in the Rocky Mountain West.
Pampush called his former position "tough" and "exciting."
"It's been a great adventure," he said.
Geoff Pampush
