IDL director: Idaho’s fire season winding down, but not over yet

BOISE — Amid an active wildfire season, recent rains have reduced Idaho’s fire risk, but the state’s “not out of the woods yet,” according to Idaho Department of Lands Director Dustin Miller.

“Folks are going to want to start burning, I know some of the other larger land managers are going to want to start doing more prescribed burning this fall, but we need to stay diligent,” Miller said. “We need to continue to get rainstorms to stack up to really, really put us in good shape.”

Miller gave the Idaho State Board of Land Commissioners a monthly fire report at a Tuesday morning meeting, which also included approval of the department’s annual budget request and an overview of how the education department’s Career Ready Students program was supporting forestry education.

FIRE REPORT

The state has spent around $51 million on fire suppression as of Friday, although an estimated $5.1 million of that will be reimbursable, Miller said. Last season, the state spent a total of $22 million on fire suppression efforts, the Idaho Press reported.

However, the state’s cost-sharing obligation with the Forest Service has yet to be determined and may cost an additional $10 million, he said. With a new master fire agreement, there are factors related to acres burned on state land as well as efforts to suppress the fires to keep them off state land, Miller said. The cost share fire costs are expected to be reported in October.

IDL has spent $29.9 million on IDL team fires, $3.5 million on aviation resources and $787,500 on contract engines, among other suppression costs.

More than half of the total 803,066 acres that have burned in Idaho this year has been on U.S. Forest Service land, with 402,662 acres burned as of Friday. Around 40% of the Gem State is National Forest.

Some of the significant blazes that are still burning include the Lava Fire, 12 miles southwest of Cascade, which has burned 94,586 acres and is 6% contained; and the Wapiti Fire, 14 miles west of Stanley, which has burned 125,429 acres and is 12% contained, Miller said. Both of these are in the Boise National Forest.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little and state Controller Brandon Woolf both said they want the Forest Service to do more to keep fires on its land from getting so big.

Woolf asked what could be done to encourage the Forest Service to increase suppression efforts.

Miller said that the Forest Service, as the largest landowner in the state, has to prioritize its resources and will do so where there’s life or property at risk. He added that the state could continue to advocate for prevention and more land management through shared stewardship with the state and private landowners and for a more expedited National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) permitting process.

Little highlighted that the fires on the state-managed land were controlled while blazes on Forest Service land were still largely not contained. IDL manages around 2.5 million acres of Land, the Forest Service oversees around 20.4 million acres in Idaho.

“They’ve got to do more containment and they’ve got to do more management,” Little said.

BUDGET REQUEST

The Department of Lands will ask the Legislature this year for five new full-time positions: a fire emergency support program manager, fire aviation section manager, statewide fire assessment program manager, assistant fire warden for the Ponderosa area, and an urban and community forestry program specialist.

There are also new budget requests for equipment, vehicles and fire detection cameras.

The new budget line item requests total around $3 million. The department’s proposed budget increase would be a 3.4% increase from its appropriation for fiscal year 2025.

The Land Board members all approved the budget request, with Little abstaining from voting.

The full budget request, along with all other agency budget requests, was submitted to the Division of Financial Management for consideration of inclusion in the governor’s proposed budget. The state’s budget writers will then take into consideration the governor’s proposal and the agency requests in creating budget bills during the coming legislative session.

IDAHO CAREER READY STUDENTS

Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield on Tuesday also provided an overview to fellow Land Board members of the education department’s Idaho Career Ready Students program.

The program was created and funded by the Legislature in 2023 and provides funds to create new or expand existing career and technical education programs in rural middle and high schools to meet industry needs.

In North Idaho, many of the programs revolve around forestry.

In 2023, the Legislature approved $45 million for the program and an additional $20 million in 2024, and of grants that have been provided, 17% have gone to forestry programs, Critchfield said.

Potlatch School District received $989,198 to create a new forestry and natural resources program at the high school, the Lewiston Tribune previously reported.

Orofino received about $530,000 for a natural resources and forestry pathway program, and Kamiah High School got nearly $250,000 for a Forest Products Facility and equipment.

The grants led to the creation of six new forestry or forest products programs at Idaho schools, Critchfield said.

The department worked with forestry industry leaders to create a standardized curriculum for these new programs. The department also partnered with the University of Idaho’s forestry program to help start the new programs and mentor instructors.

“What we like about that, is the burden isn’t on the school district to go buy or find curriculum, and we don’t want independent contractors and different kids learning different things,” Critchfield said, “so we’re excited about the uniformity of where are students are going to be.”

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.