Craig Utter enjoyed his high school auto shop so much that he told his teacher he would return after college to replace him. His journey never brought him back to Evergreen, but his journey has taken him down different and fascinating paths.

Craig was born and raised in Evergreen, attended Wilmot Elementary, Evergreen Junior High, and Evergreen High School. He graduated in 1987, before the merger between Evergreen Scholarship Association and Bootstraps Loans. He received a Bootstraps loan which helped tremendously with school costs after his family lost all of their college funds in the Savings and Loan scandal of the late 1980s.

During high school, Craig participated in the Rodeo Club and soccer, but it was his Auto Shop class that held his greatest interest. Craig chose Colorado State University because of their Vo-Tech teaching program. His plan was to return home and replace his teacher, Rex Eaves, so he could retire. During Craig’s two years in the Vo-Tech teaching program at CSU, the public school system began defunding vocational programs in high schools, so Craig decided he needed to make a change. He pivoted to agriculture and graduated CSU with a degree in Beef Cattle Production.

Craig enjoyed his time at CSU and recounts a great transition from high school to college. He credits it to a recommendation from a friend to live in Ellis Hall, one of the residence halls at CSU. There, he met four really good friends who continue to be friends to this day. He also met a captain of the Rugby team and became involved in CSU Club Rugby and was able to play as an exchange student in Scotland. Craig held a variety of jobs throughout college including working at a pizza place, horse riding stables, a feed lot, and as a Residence Assistant in the dorms.

​Craig has an incredible memory that he credits to being dyslexic. He relies heavily on remembering conversations and experiences and learns a lot by doing rather than reading about them. When reading, he views and remembers text as pictures. One of his professors at CSU was Temple Grandin who taught her Cattle Handling class using pictures and slide shows. Craig learned so much in her class because he was able to remember the pictures she used. As a side note, Craig attended a conference 15 years after taking Temple’s class, he approached her to say hi, and she looked at him and very matter-of-factly said, “I remember you.” 

 

After receiving his degree from CSU, he began a master’s program in Biology at the University of Northern Colorado. He never finished the program, however, because he purchased, in partnership, a ranch in Nebraska and started his ideal job as a rancher. He owned three thousand acres and took care of 300 cows. March to May was calving season, and Craig’s daily duties included making sure the babies survived and thrived during the cold and windy Nebraska spring. As the weather turned warm, he would brand and vaccinate the calves while preparing pastures for the summer grazing season. Making sure the native grasslands were healthy insured the cows would be healthy and this was crucial to a successful ranch. During the summer months, Craig would manage herd health and do a little bit of haying. The calves would be weaned from their mothers in the fall and then go to market. Ranching is a capital-intensive industry because all expenses must be paid prior to going to market, and there is no guarantee that the market will be fruitful. The calves are sold by the pound, and Craig would have no idea how much he would make until the day of the sale. One year he suffered a very poor market because of the mad cow disease scare. The claims turned out to be false, but there was so much national attention given to the beef industry that it was too late for Craig, and other ranchers, to recoup their losses.

Craig owned his ranch for 13 years before moving to Idaho, and while he misses running a ranch, he said it would be difficult for him to return to ranching. He believes that “farmers and ranchers face a conundrum with society not valuing the work they do and the importance of a national food supply.”
​
During his time in Nebraska, Craig was involved with the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association and became the chair of their Natural Resources and Environment Committee. At the same time, he became involved with a variety of private land conservation programs. One such program is the Leopold Conservation Award, a prestigious national private land stewardship program. Craig was instrumental in getting the award to Nebraska, and it has been successful because of the collaborative work he facilitated between private landowners and a diverse group of stakeholders.​

Craig and his wife, Kara

​In 2006, Craig moved to McCall, Idaho and began his wildland firefighting career. While in Nebraska he volunteered as a firefighter for 13 years, so working in Fire seemed like a logical step. He was hired by the United States Forest Services (USFS) and thought he would spend one summer fighting fires before moving on; instead, he joined the Krassel Helitack crew and rappelled out of helicopters. Craig’s one year turned into ten. His crew was one of the first USFS crews to be certified as “Short Haul” capable which is a medical extraction technique for remote locations. He left fulltime firefighting in 2017, but he continues as a contract worker with the USFS as a Helibase manager and a Night Dispatcher.

During his time off from firefighting, he continued his work with the Sand County Foundation and the Leopold Conservation Award from Idaho. He also worked three seasons in Antarctica for the National Science Foundation at the McMurdo station helping to transport equipment and people to and from remote areas. One particular year, Craig had the incredible fortune of experiencing two solstices in full daylight. He was in Antarctica for the winter solstice and then in the Artic for the summer solstice.

Craig met his wife, Kara, in McCall when she was working for the Forest Service as a Fisheries technologist tracking salmon. Kara later received a master’s degree and now has her own business as a GIS analyst. Craig was a firefighter when he first met Kara, and they were able to spend one season in Antarctica together.

In 2017, Craig moved from firefighting to private land conservation and became the executive director for the Payette Land Trust. The Land Trust focuses on four West Central Idaho counties for its conservation efforts. The Trust is based in McCall Idaho, a small but rapidly growing mountain town on the shores of Payette Lake. Craig appreciates that he uses so much of his past experiences helping to protect agriculture and conserve a mountain town while helping it to find balance in growth. He is passionate and enthusiastic about the connection he has made with his community and the land, which helps him find purpose in his work.

​Craig’s experiences, including growing up in Evergreen, skills he learned from auto shop, the self-sufficiency and knowledge he gained from ranching, and the decades he spent firefighting, have culminated into, “almost 30 years of environmental agricultural and conservation-based nonprofit experience to the land trust.” Craig says he has developed a “strong understanding of the importance of collaboration which all started back in Evergreen.” Bootstraps is honored to have been a small part of Craig’s fascinating journey.