Department of Lands seeks funds for fire program expansion; governor proposes multi-million transfers to fire fund

The Idaho Department of Lands told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Thursday it needs expanded staffing and sustainment funding to support wildfire response, firefighter pay, and forest restoration work, while the governor recommended large transfers to the fire suppression deficiency fund and targeted bonuses for state-employed firefighters.

Janet Jessup, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told committee members the Department of Lands budget appears in the Natural Resources section of the budget book and encompasses six program areas, including fire and range protection, forest resources and trust-land management. She stressed the department receives revenue from numerous dedicated funds and that the largest dedicated fund for the agency collects receipts from multiple statutorily directed sources.

Dustin Miller, director of the Idaho Department of Lands, said the department is seeking several new positions tied to fire and forest operations and explained the Good Neighbor Authority (GNA), a program that uses timber-sale receipts from federal lands to fund state-administered restoration and active management. "We are now generating enough income in the program through the timber sales off of federal lands . . . About $40 million is what's been generated to date," Miller said.

Miller told lawmakers the GNA returns some money to department costs and restoration contracts: roughly $18 million to date from GNA timber-sale receipts toward department costs, about $5 million for personnel, nearly $1 million for operating costs, roughly $1 million to the Forest Service, and about $6 million toward restoration contracts. He said the department currently has agreements with six of seven national forests in Idaho and that through GNA it provided about 24 percent of the Forest Service's timber-sale volume in Idaho last year.

On wildfire funding, Jessup described the fire suppression deficiency warrant fund, which is continuously appropriated and has historically been prefunded by the Legislature since 2015. The governor recommended a $40 million transfer from the general fund to the fire suppression deficiency fund and a separate $60 million supplemental transfer for the current year. Jessup showed committee members the recommended transfers would raise the projected fund balance.

Miller told the committee the department's current suppression account balance does not reflect outstanding partner invoices and said that, without the governor's recommended transfers, the suppression account could drop to about $13 million in FY2026. "We monitor our cost very closely every fire season on a daily basis," Miller said. He said the department projects variation from year to year and that some years have cost close to $100 million while others have been nearer $30 million.

The department requested multiple staff positions tied to fire modernization and preparedness, including a fire emergency support program manager, a fire aviation section manager, a statewide forest assessment program manager, an assistant fire warden for the Ponderosa area, a fiscal-financial specialist and a forest program position. Jessup told the committee that some line items include both ongoing and one-time cost components; for example, the fire emergency support program manager carries an ongoing request of roughly $124,700 and a one-time request of about $59,700 in the agency packet.

Timber Protective Associations (TPAs), which the analyst described as quasi-state entities that are not state employees, asked the committee for cost-of-employment compensation (CEC) adjustments. The TPAs receive their funding in part from assessments, liens and fines on private forest lands where TPAs provide fire protection. Jessup said the governor's recommendation included an upward adjustment for TPA CEC to give parity with the 5 percent CEC placeholder provided to state employees; however, governor-recommended firefighter bonuses totaling $1 million would cover Department of Lands employees and not TPA employees. TPAs later requested an additional $250,000 to extend bonuses to TPA firefighters.

Jessup also told lawmakers the department had received federal appropriations and IIJA-related grants that have increased appropriated amounts in prior years; some federal funds have not yet been expended because the federal reimbursements or grant work remain in process.

Committee members asked several questions about timing of reimbursements, whether the cost of fighting fires was trending upward and the role of federal land management versus state programs. Miller said Idaho has a higher proportion of federal land to manage and that collaboration via GNA and shared stewardship has increased the pace and scale of work on federal lands. He said longer fire seasons, growth in the wildland-urban interface and more human-caused ignitions are driving higher costs.

On abandoned mines, Miller said the Department of Lands must address nearly 9,000 abandoned mines across the state and that funds dedicated to abandoned-mine closures have not kept pace with the need.

Ending: The committee did not take formal votes during the hearing. Members and staff requested follow-up information on historic suppression costs and reimbursements; they also pressed agencies for details on position justifications and fund balances.