BLM briefs Bonner County commissioners on staffing, fire response arrangements, public access and recreation funding

Bureau of Land Management District Manager Kurt Pindell told Bonner County commissioners that his Coeur d'Alene-based office is operating with fewer employees while it maintains priorities for timber sales, mining oversight and firefighting support.

"If you ever have questions, please feel free to call me or my staff," Pindell said, urging local officials to use direct contacts when issues arise.

The briefing centered on four practical matters: recent and continuing staff reductions; how BLM arranges wildfire response and ambulance standby through agreements with other agencies and private providers; the location and limited size of BLM parcels in Bonner County and how the agency handles disposals; and federal recreation funding that could be used to secure public access.

Pindell said the district has shrunk from about 65 employees to roughly 50 through retirements and voluntary separations. He said the BLM is meeting and exceeding its assigned timber-sale targets but will be thinner for public-engagement work. On firefighting, Pindell described a "service first" arrangement in which the BLM pays the U.S. Forest Service (and other partners when needed) to provide suppression on BLM lands and said the agency reimburses other responding entities under cooperative agreements.

Commissioners and county staff…