Crossing boundaries to fight fire

A bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, could streamline North Idaho wildfire management projects officials say are often hamstrung by interagency restrictions.

Over the years, Idaho Department of Lands Policy and Communications Chief Scott Phillips said the agency has seen important forest health projects become unnecessarily delayed by the National Environmental Policy Act. 

The bicameral legislation by Risch and Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, would circumvent those barriers by creating a joint agreement between governors and federal departments to accelerate wildfire management initiatives. Other U.S. Senators like Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., co-sponsored the bill.

If approved, the Forest Improvements through Research and Emergency Stewardship for Health Ecosystem Development and Sustainability (FIRESHEDS) Act would allow 90 days to designate and implement projects for areas with a higher risk of wildfire called firesheds. 

“Idaho is 40% forestland, the vast majority of which is managed by government entities,” Risch said in a media release Monday. “Decades of insufficient forest management have left millions of these acres vulnerable to the kinds of catastrophic fires that have increasingly become the norm in the West.”

Phillips explained that across the country, notably in North Idaho, those initiatives are curtailed by the intermixing of state, federal, and privately owned forest lands. 

“Knowing that wildfires know no boundaries help prevent catastrophic problems in the future,” Phillips said. “Measures like FIRESHEDS Act take into account that we need landscape treatment on forest land across boundaries regardless of ownership.”

Phillips believes the FIRESHEDS Act would build on the work underway in the Idaho Shared Stewardship program — a partnership between state and federal organizations to address forest health in target areas. 

“Shared Stewardship often occurs in areas where timber is located. Some of the best and most productive timber areas are in the northern priority landscape,” Phillips said. “In the northern landscape, there are about 2 million acres that are regularly assessed and identified for treatment.”

In 2018, the State of Idaho and U.S. Department of Agriculture signed the Shared Stewardship Agreement to increase interagency collaboration, Idaho Panhandle National Forest public affairs officer Patrick Liar explained.

As part of the strategy, IDL and the U.S. Forest Service aimed to:

Focus on reduction of fuels and wildfire risk to communities, 

Improve forest health and watershed conditions

Support markets to sustain and create jobs

Plan, invest in, and create “real outcomes” across boundaries while respecting ownership values

IPNF is currently in the final stages of planning the “Scattered Lands” project, which Lair said is a “direct result of shared stewardship efforts.” Once approved, the project would treat about 7,000 acres of National Forest System, state and private lands in the northern priority landscape, he explained. 

“Scattered lands got its name because often you’ll see a large block of ownership everybody identifies as national forests,” IDL State Forester Craig Foss said. “But there are U.S. Forest Service, state endowment, private nonindustrial and private industrial properties all intermixed.”

As an employee of the state, Foss said he could identify a treatment needed on a piece of endowment lands and have it approved within months. However, the same process can take several years on U.S. Forest Service lands, Foss explained. Even then, Foss said that in spite of interagency collaboration, agencies are still seeing projects litigated. 

“It is unfortunate when you spend a lot of time working, evaluating all the criteria required, and get to a point where you whittled a project away to address concerns. You may start with 6,000 acres and end up proposing to treat 2,000, a third of what you started with,” Foss said. “Then it gets litigated on a technicality, and nothing gets done.”    

The Scattered Lands project aims to reduce the risk of wildfires, presence of hazardous fuels, increase public education and contribute to the overall health and safety of the Forest Service and adjacent areas, Lair said. 

“Forest health issues, increased rural development, and wildfire risk to the communities have created a need for cross-boundary ‘all hands, all lands’ solutions,” Lair explained. “Cumulatively, the treatments will lead to a more fire-resilient landscape with wildfire prepared communities.” 

Plans for the project include approximately:

3,100 of fuels treatment like slash piling, mastication and prescribed burning

3,900 acres treated with commercial timber removal 

3,500 acres of tree planting to restore the harvested areas 

Among the 24 organizations that have endorsed the FIRESHEDS Act is the Idaho Forest Group, one of the largest American lumber producers in Coeur d’Alene. Tom Schulz, Vice President of Resources and Government Affairs for the Idaho Forest Group, said the company supported the legislation because of its direct impact on North Idaho. 

“The bill intends to prioritize treatment and management that reduces fire hazard and improves forest health,” Schultz said. “Healthy forests lead to healthy communities, and it is important for our economy in Idaho.”

The legislation will have to pass both the Senate and House.