Colder weather and rainfall are welcome changes for local fire managers but fire season is not over yet. On Tuesday, the Department of Lands took stock of the latest wildland firefighting report, noting cost for the year remained within the predicted budget.
Speaking in front of the board, Director Dustin Miller said efforts to suppress fires on state land this season cost Idaho around $51 million. Some of the fires were on Federal land and the Idaho Department still needs to figure out how much the state versus the feds need to cover.
“It could be north of $10 million in terms of cost share responsibilities, but we're not quite sure yet,” Miller estimated.
So far this year, Idaho saw 48,000 acres of state land burn in 292 fires.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Miller said.
“We need to stay diligent and be mindful of the fact that significant fire risk still exists,” he added. “We need to continue to get the rainstorms to stack up to really put us in a good shape.”
Gov. Brad Little criticized the Federal Government’s response to suppressing fire on Federal Land.
“All our fires are out and all of theirs ran uncontained.” he said, adding the forest Service would have to up their management game.
In Idaho, federal agencies manage more than 10 times the acreage overseen by the state.
