Idaho moves full steam ahead on helping to manage some federal lands
06 October 2019
Published by https://magicvalley.com/
USA – BOISE — Climate change and years of fire suppression have left nearly 8 million acres of forest land in Idaho at risk from insects, disease and fire. About 6 million of those acres are federal lands.
Idaho last year launched what’s called a “shared stewardship” program to use state resources to assist the federal government in managing such activities as timber sales, forest thinning, fire breaks, tree cutting and prescribed burns on federal lands.
“As we look forward at … shared stewardship, the consensus — and it’s not 100%, but it’s pretty good,” Idaho Gov. Brad Little said Thursday, “is what are we going to do to reduce wildfires? What are we going to do to create sustainable economic opportunities with that active management? What are we going to do, most importantly, to improve the health and the resilience of Idaho’s forests and watersheds. And this has been a good example.”
Little was the keynote speaker at the Western Governors Association working lands roundtable at Boise State University, attended by state and federal officials, and private parties interested in land use policy in the West.
At his keynote address Thursday, Little announced members of a shared stewardship advisory committee, consisting of state government officials, elected officials, timber industry officials, Forest Service officials, conservationists and a tribal representative. Among them are state Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay; state Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens; representatives from the Idaho Forest Group, Bennett Lumber, Potlatch Deltic and Associated Logging Contractors; as well as representatives of the Payette Forest Coalition, National Wild Turkey Federation and Idaho Conservation League.
“The health of our forests is bigger than any one agency,” Little said. “It’s more than the Forest Service, more than the state Land Department. It’s more than big industrial timber, landowners and small landowners. It has to be looked at from a very broad scale going forward.”
After signing the shared stewardship agreement in December, the state this summer identified two areas for the program, one around McCall and one in North Idaho.
The North Idaho land encompasses about 2 million acres in Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, and Shoshone counties. The area covers a variety of forest landowners and an extensive complex of wildland-urban interface where homes, infrastructure and communities may be at higher risk from wildfire, according to the agreement.
The McCall land includes 2.3 million acres in Adams, Washington, Valley and Idaho counties, and includes small communities and areas where rangelands transition into forest.
