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Department of Lands warns budget holdbacks could leave regions understaffed for fire season
Summary
Idaho Department of Lands Director Dustin Miller told JFAC that recent holdbacks and funding shifts risk under-staffing critical fire districts; he reported a net fire obligation of just over $40 million for 2025 and described a fund shift of 1.25 FTP and $160,000 from the Abandoned Mine Lands fund to the Navigable Waterways Fund.
Dustin Miller, director of the Idaho Department of Lands, told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that the department’s endowment mission supports timber sales and other revenue streams across 2.5 million acres of trust lands. He said 2025 produced a record year for endowment income and that the department sells roughly a third of the state's timber volume.
Miller gave the committee a short assessment of the 2025 fire year: the department recorded about 400 ignitions — roughly 135% of the 20-year average — but kept acres burned to approximately 5,000 (about 20% of the three-year average). "Our net obligation for 2025 is just over $40,000,000," he said, and he thanked the legislature for last session’s one-time $40 million supplemental into the deficiency…
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