{"id":11301,"date":"2025-11-20T07:02:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=11301"},"modified":"2025-11-20T07:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:03:11","slug":"public-lands-idahos-wildfire-suppression-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=11301","title":{"rendered":"Public Lands – Idaho’s wildfire suppression fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>https:\/\/idahocapitalsun.com\/2025\/11\/19\/balance-of-idahos-state-wildfire-suppression-fund-drops-to-15-million-after-2025-season\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While the state continues navigating budget holdbacks and revenue shortfalls, the balance of Idaho\u2019s wildfire suppression fund is expected to drop to $15 million after closing the books on the 2025 wildfire season, state officials said Tuesday.\u00a0 Idaho\u2019s expenses for the 2025 wildfire season netted about $40.6 million, Idaho Department of Lands Director Dustin Miller said during Tuesday\u2019s meeting of the Idaho State Board of Land Commissioners<\/a>, which is frequently referred to as simply the Land Board. Miller told the Land Board that Idaho incurred about $59.3 million in expenses as of Nov. 3, but the state expects to recoup about $18.6 million through reimbursement agreements and partnerships \u2013 resulting in a net total of about $40.6 million.<\/p>\n

Miller estimated that leaves the state\u2019s wildfire suppression fund with a balance of about $15 million heading into the 2026 wildfire season.<\/p>\n

That amount of money is likely not enough to pay wildfire bills in 2026. Miller estimated that the state will be on the hook for almost $5 million next year in fixed costs at the beginning of the season before the first fire even starts.\u00a0\u00a0Idaho Gov. Brad Little said costs could be well over $10 million when the cost of contracting for helicopters, crews and other equipment are added \u2013 all before fighting a single wildfire.<\/p>\n

That means state officials could have to find additional money to fight wildfires at a time when all state agencies \u2013 other than the K-12 public school system \u2013 are navigating mandatory budget holdbacks of 3% and the state budget is projected to\u00a0end the current fiscal year with a budget deficit estimated at $58.3 million<\/a>, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. As state revenues come in below projections, the Idaho Legislature\u2019s powerful budget-setting committee, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, has signaled that next year\u2019s budgets will be tight, and\u00a0legislators will generally focus more on trimming budgets rather than approving new budget expenses<\/a>\u00a0to avoid running a budget deficit, the Sun previously reported.<\/p>\n

Idaho governor said he doesn\u2019t want state going into debt fighting wildfires<\/b><\/h4>\n

Little has favored pre-funding the state\u2019s wildfire suppression fund<\/a>\u00a0to make sure money is available upfront, ensure firefighting operations are not shortchanged or interrupted and to avoid going into debt fighting wildfires.<\/p>\n

\u201cBacking the Fire Suppression Deficiency Fund means Idaho\u2019s wildland firefighters can focus on aggressively protecting timber, lands, property and people without funding delays, and lawmakers can enter next year\u2019s budgeting cycle without a deficit due to wildfire suppression,\u201d Little and the Land Board members wrote in a Feb. 18 letter to JFAC.\u00a0 At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, Little requested $60 million to build up the wildfire suppression fund, but the Idaho Legislature agreed to provide $40 million.<\/a>\u00a0 With the balance of the wildfire fund now dropping to $15 million, Little said Tuesday he is trying to decide how much funding he needs to request to be prepared to fight wildfires in 2026 so the state does not have to use deficiency warrants to pay the bills. Little and other state officials have compared the deficiency warrant process to running up credit card debit to pay for essential state services.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time you contract for helicopters and the airplanes and the crews and everything, it\u2019s well over $10 million,\u201d Little said Tuesday. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to figure out what the budget request needs to be so we don\u2019t have to do deficiency warrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compared to the more severe 2024 wildfire season, Idaho\u2019s wildfire costs were lower this year at an estimated $40.6 million. In 2024, Idaho\u2019s wildfire costs were about $58 million, the Sun previously reported.<\/p>\n

The Land Board is made up of Little, Secretary of State Phil McGrane, Idaho Attorney General Ra\u00fal Labrador, Idaho State Controller Brandon Woolf and Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield.\u00a0\u00a0The Land Board provides direction to the Idaho Department of Lands, which is responsible for fighting wildfires on state land.<\/p>\n

The Idaho Legislature will set the fiscal year 2027 budget for the Idaho Department of Lands during the 2026 legislative session, which begins Jan. 12\u00a0 at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/idahocapitalsun.com\/2025\/11\/19\/balance-of-idahos-state-wildfire-suppression-fund-drops-to-15-million-after-2025-season\/ While the state continues navigating budget holdbacks and revenue shortfalls, the balance of Idaho\u2019s wildfire suppression fund is expected to drop to $15 million after closing the books on the 2025 wildfire season, state officials said Tuesday.\u00a0 Idaho\u2019s expenses for the 2025 wildfire season netted about $40.6 million, Idaho Department of Lands Director Dustin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-public-lands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11301"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11306,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11301\/revisions\/11306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}