New Director, Same Mission for the Idaho State Department of Agriculture

Chanel Tewalt was appointed by Governor Brad Little to serve as Director of the Idaho State Department of Agri culture (ISDA) in January. Director Tewalt first joined the ISDA while in college and has 15 years of experience at the department, including serving as the deputy director and chief operations officer. In her work at the agency, Tewalt has focused on collaboration with industry partners and on the implementation of agency programs with a clear understand ing of statutory requirements and stakeholder needs. She also oversaw efforts to reduce regulatory red tape and respond to emergency issues impacting agriculture.

Tewalt grew up on a livestock operation in Klamath Falls, Oregon, which is home to longstanding struggles over water. These experiences and other lessons learned in agriculture, are foundational to the way Tewalt approaches her work at the ISDA. In her role at the agency, she seeks to emphasize balance, transparency and strong customer service.

“ISDA has a dual role – promotion and regulation. I believe firmly in implementing those roles with consistency and respect for our customers.” said Tewalt. “I also encourage ranchers and allied industry to reach out to me with candid feedback about the ISDA. If we don’t know about an issue, we can’t fix it.”

With a wide range of agency programs serving the industry, Tewalt recognizes the importance of providing timely and appropriate services so that customers can continue to produce and market agricultural products and commodities. In her previous roles, she was a key point of contact for interactions with stakeholder and industry groups, legislators and partner state and federal agencies. Continuing to build those positive working relationships with stakeholders and partners are of primary importance to the Director in serving Idaho agriculture.

Director Tewalt understands the strong relationship between Idaho’s cattle industry and Celia Gould, former director of the ISDA. Tewalt has full intentions of the ISDA building on that

THE IDAHO PUBLIC LANDS COUNCIL (IPLC) AND IDAHO CATTLE ASSOCIATION (ICA) ARE JOINTLY SEEKING ONE STUDENT FOR A 2023 INTERNSHIP POSITION!

Interested applicants should :

Have completed at least their freshman year of undergraduate coursework or be a recent college graduate in agriculture, range, public policy or marketing/communications, Be a self-motivated individual who possesses excellent analytical and communication skills, Specify how their background provides them with the proper knowledge and abilities to excel in this internship (cattle industry knowledge is required), Preferably have a basic understanding of public lands grazing and rangeland management, Possess creative writing, copyediting & data entry skills.

This intern will potentially be compiling research regarding the benefits of grazing, particularly as it relates to sage grouse. The individual will also work in-depth with ICA and IPLC in publication production, meeting planning & facilitation of ICA’s summer meeting, performing a variety of office tasks and membership recruitment projects.

While the start and end dates of the internship are somewhat flexible, the intern will be expected to work a minimum of 10 weeks and should begin no later than May 30.

Visit www.idahocattle.org for full posting & application. Questions not listed in posting? Email us at info@idahocattle.org.