TOM HALLBERG
IDAHO CONSERVATION ORGANIZER
As GYC’s Idaho Conservation Organizer, Tom generates support for Idaho projects, including stopping the Kilgore Gold Exploration Project and advocating for wildlife overpasses on Highway 22.
After finishing a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Tom shared his love of the outdoors with others through a collection of guiding and education jobs, from teaching conservation and forest ecology to leading wilderness therapy trips. Drawn from Oregon to the Greater Yellowstone (the Tetons, specifically) more than a decade ago by the promise of easy access splitboarding, he gave up his backpack for a pen after finishing his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. He landed in journalism, holding a multitude of roles, from being a copy editor at the Jackson Hole News&Guide to the managing editor of Backcountry Magazine. He’s written about topics from drought impacts in his home of Teton Valley and mental health in mountain towns to profiles of under-the-radar freeskiers and longform deep-dives into the history of snow sports.
When he’s not visiting eastern Idaho’s small towns, he’s skiing or biking with his wife, Ellen, and pups, Huck and Addie, or chasing a story. If he’s too tired for all that, he probably has his nose in a book.
Conservation Hero: George Atiyeh, guardian of Oregon’s Opal Creek
Book I’d Recommend: Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
Favorite Season in Greater Yellowstone: Winter, because … snowboarding, but also because I’ve rarely found more peace and gratitude than on a long walk with friends through a quiet, snow-covered landscape.