Idaho Department of Lands outlines wildfire response, timber revenues and Good Neighbor work in annual update

Dustin Miller, director of the Idaho Department of Lands, told the House Research and Conservation Committee on an annual update that the agency manages about 2,500,000 acres of endowment lands and is intensifying wildfire readiness and fuel‑reduction work while continuing timber sales to benefit state endowments.

"We manage 2,500,000 acres," Miller said, and the department distributed a little more than $100,000,000 to endowment beneficiaries in fiscal 2024, including "a little more than $62,000,000 to Idaho's public schools." He said about 92 percent of department revenue is derived from timber sales on roughly 1,000,000 acres of endowment timberland.

The update focused heavily on wildfire preparation and costs. Miller said the department has suppression responsibility on "a little more than 9,000,000 acres of state, federal and private timberlands in Idaho" and reported that within the department's protection boundaries it responded to about 323 fires in 2024 that burned roughly 50,000 acres. He said nearly a million acres burned statewide in 2024, about 80 percent of that on federal lands.

Miller outlined several operational priorities he told lawmakers are part of a longer strategic effort: modernizing compensation and…