Idaho Department of Lands details timber revenue, wildfire costs and staffing shortfalls; asks legislature for suppression funding

Dustin Miller, director of the Idaho Department of Lands, told the House Research and Conservation Committee that IDL distributed ‘‘a little more than $100,000,000 to the endowment beneficiaries’’ in fiscal 2024, including ‘‘a little more than $62,000,000 to Idaho’s public schools.’’

Miller said those distributions come from income tied to state endowment lands and the permanent endowment fund and stressed that timber sales remain the department’s primary revenue source. He said the Land Board last year approved a timber-sale offering level the department will hold for five years and that the forest asset management plan sets sustainable annual harvest volumes.

The update focused heavily on wildfire: Miller said IDL protects roughly 9,000,000 acres under its protection boundaries and described 2024 as an active fire year. ‘‘In 2024, 02/2001 human caused fires, 122 lightning caused fires for a total of about 3 23 fires, burning about 50,000 acres’’ within IDL protection boundaries, he said; statewide, Miller told the committee, nearly a million acres burned and about 80% of that was on federal lands.

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