Three State Offices Merge: Introducing OSMEC

Effective July 1, 2026, three state offices counties regularly work with — the Office of Species Conservation (OSC), the Office of Energy and Mineral Resources (OEMR), and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) — have consolidated into a single agency: the Office of Species, Minerals, and Energy Coordination (OSMEC), pronounced “oh-smeck.”

The Two Bills Behind the Merger

House Bill 737 merged the Governor’s Office of Species Conservation (OSC) and the Governor’s Office of Energy and Mineral Resources (OEMR) under a single administrator, with the goal of improving coordination and reducing administrative redundancy.

House Bill 898 moved the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) from the Idaho State Historical Society into the newly formed OSMEC, creating a single point of contact for projects requiring federal permitting review.

New Leadership: Administrator Cally Younger

Governor Brad Little has named Cally Younger as OSMEC’s first Administrator. Younger most recently led the Office of Energy and Mineral Resources and chaired the Governor’s SPEED Council, a cabinet-level body focused on streamlining state permitting for major infrastructure and energy projects.

Her background includes service at the U.S. Department of the Interior as Deputy Solicitor for Land Resources and Counselor to the Bureau of Land Management Director, as well as prior roles as counsel to Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter and as legal counsel and policy advisor at the Office of Species Conservation. She holds a J.D. from the University of Idaho College of Law. Younger’s combination of federal land-management experience and direct prior service within OSC gives her a strong foundation for leading all three of OSMEC’s functions.

What Counties Should Know

The legal processes counties rely on are unchanged. Section 106 historic preservation review still operates under 36 CFR Part 800, and species and energy/mineral coordination continue under the same statutory frameworks as before.

Counties working with the state on species coordination, energy/mineral permitting, or historic preservation review can now expect a single point of contact rather than three separate offices.

Counties with open cases or correspondence with any of the three predecessor offices are encouraged to confirm with OSMEC that contacts and timelines have carried over smoothly.

For questions on historic preservation matters, OSMEC’s SHPO staff can be reached at info@shpo.idaho.gov. Additional contact information for OSMEC’s species and energy/mineral functions will be shared as the agency completes its transition.