BOISE, Idaho — In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order called Freeing our Forests Act. Shortly thereafter, Governor Brad Little signed a state-level executive order in late April called the Make Forests Healthy Again Act.
These two executive orders aim to give Idaho supplemental assistance when it comes to guarding against wildfires. The Idaho Department of Lands is tasked with implementing these changes to improve long-term forest management in Idaho.
"The Trump administration is actually treating the wildfire crisis in Idaho and the west like a crisis," said Dustin Miller, the director of the Idaho Department of Lands. "The past administration called it that, but they didn’t really act on it."
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The federal government and states have worked together since 2016 through the Good Neighbor Authority and Shared Stewardship Programs to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration. These new executive orders hope to build on that progress.
"There are about six million acres in Idaho that have been identified as being severely at risk for insect and disease infestations and consequently— wildfires," said Miller. What we want to do is take a look at our mapping to prioritize where we can do some of these treatments."
The treatments included logging, mechanical thinning, prescribed burns, and creating fuel breaks. They also allow the Idaho Department of Lands to help with initial attack responses for wildfires.
"The first thing we want to do is keep people safe, the second thing we want to do is put the fire out to protect life, limb and property and we want to do it as efficiently as possible," said Governor Little in a press conference on April 22. "To our loggers, you have more work coming your way."
Since 2016 through the Good Neighbor Authority Idaho added 59 timber sales, harvested 93 million board feet of timber, and in total generated $16.4 million for the Idaho economy.
"We are completely focused on providing a stable supply to the mills in Idaho, but with the proceeds from the timber sales, we are able to roll those funds forward on restoration projects on the ground," said Miller.
Miller says it's not an effort to clear-cut the forest, it's an effort to reduce fuels and clean up the forest. Last year, nearly one million acres burned in Idaho, and most of those acres were on federal land.
"The federal government can leverage the states like Idaho that have a lot of capabilities and a lot of forestry expertise to make forests more resistant and resilient to catastrophic wildfire," said Miller. "We have been able to get a lot done with the Forest Service, and I think [the] Trump administration and Governor Little [are] setting us on a path to do even more, and we are excited about that."
The forest service did not comment for this story, but we have been talking to them about a project they are working on in the Boise National Forest between Bogus Basin and Stack Rock. That's a project through the Good Neighbor Authority.
