Idaho Department of Lands reports $100M-plus endowment distributions, outlines wildfire costs and budget asks

Idaho Department of Lands Director Dustin Miller told the House Research and Conservation Committee that the department distributed a little more than $100 million to endowment beneficiaries in fiscal 2024, including about $62 million to the state’s public schools, and outlined rising wildfire costs and staffing challenges.

Miller said the department manages roughly 2,500,000 acres of endowment land and that timber sales remain the dominant revenue source. He told the committee the department planted about 2,000,000 seedlings on endowment timberlands in FY24 and manages more than 1,600 leases on those lands.

The department’s wildfire findings formed the central part of Miller’s briefing. He said Idaho protects slightly more than 9,000,000 acres under its suppression responsibility and that the 2024 season produced significant costs. “This is just a breakdown of of some of the major costs from this fire season,” Miller said, summarizing a department estimate of roughly $62 million in total costs, about $11 million of which are expected to be reimbursable, leaving a net state obligation of about $51.5 million.

Why it matters: The department’s suppression account has funded heavy firefighting costs in recent years. Miller told the panel the governor’s budget proposes a $60 million supplemental to replenish the suppression account and an ongoing $40 million appropriation intended to reflect the state’s approximate annual suppression workload.

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