Director Miller Presented at IAC Conference, Met with Benewah, Boundary and Shoshone Commissioners
On Monday Director Miller presented information about the Idaho Master Fire Agreement to a full conference room at the Idaho Association of Counties' Public Lands Committee meeting.
On Tuesday Director Miller joined Governor Little at the IAC meeting.
On Wednesday Director Miller met with Commissioner Phil Lampert (Benewah), Commissioner Tim Bertling (Boundary) and Commissioner Jeff Zimmerman (Shoshone). They discussed IDL's recent acquisition of timberland in their counties and recreational use of endowment land. The outcome of the meeting was positive for all parties.
Upcoming IDL Legislative Presentations
Senate Resources and Environment Committee
Dustin Miller and Josh Harvey will present information about IDL's fire modernization efforts to the Senate Resources Committee on Monday, February 13 at 1:30 p.m. MT.
House Resources and Conservation Committee
Dustin Miller and Josh Harvey will present information about IDL's fire modernization efforts to the House Resources Committee on Monday, February 13 at 2:05 p.m. MT.
House Education Committee
Dustin Miller and Chris Anton, EFIB Manager of Investments, will present information about how and why the endowments support public schools to the House Education Committee on Wednesday, February 15 at 9 a.m. MT.
Superintendent Critchfield to Visit IDL Fire Cache in Coeur d'Alene Next Week
At 3:00 pm PT on Thursday, February 9, Superintendent Critchfield will visit IDL's Coeur d'Alene Staff and Mica Supervisory Area offices, and tour the agency's Coeur d’Alene Interagency Fire Cache.
During the tour IDL will explain the challenges it faces in recruiting skilled workers for building wildland fire engines, maintaining small engines on pumps and chainsaws, operating equipment like forklifts and driving commercial vehicles.
The cache provides supplies and equipment to support wildfire incidents throughout Idaho and other western states. Last season the cache served crews battling more than 200 wildfires. Equipment returned to the cache is repaired before sending it back out. Last fire season IDL refurbished 855 pieces of equipment and enough firehose to stretch 280 miles, the distance from Coeur d’Alene to McCall.
Since firefighters' lives depend on equipment serviced by the cache working perfectly when it is deployed on the next fire, hiring skilled workers is essential. The cache employs 12 full-time state employees who work year-round and seasonal staff who are brought in during peak fire season. They handle inventory valued at more than $12 million.
IDL Reminds Employees to Report "Near Misses" to Safety Officer
The latest edition of the IDL Safety Newsletter covers a many topics including screen time and eye strain, flu season and the influence of sleep on one's health. It also delves into the important topic of "near misses," or incidents that could have easily turned into accidents.
The newsletter reminds staff that near miss reporting provides critical information to assist in identifying safety issues and trends. Near miss reporting may save employees from injuries.
Staff are strongly encouraged to report near misses to IDL's Safety Officer, Vikki Snider.
Rulemaking Hearings
On Tuesday, January 31, IDL presented two sets of proposed rule changes to the House Resource & Conservation Committee, Rules for Selling Forest Products and State-Owned Endowment Lands and Rules Governing Leases on State-Owned Navigable Waterways.
The committee deferred voting on the rule dockets until February 9.
Information about IDL's rulemaking and proposed legislation is available on our 2023 Legislative Priorities webpage.
Replacement for IDL's ServicePro IT Incident Management System
One of the key components to a stable IT infrastructure is an incident management process capable of escalating and resolving issues in alignment with service level agreements.
IDL will soon replace its existing IT incident management system, ServicePro, with Jira Service Management, modernizing the incident management process as part of the Jira implementation.
The new process will emphasize transparency so IDL can more readily identify which systems create more unplanned interruptions or reduce quality, and where IT resources are being utilized.
IDL's IT team has already begun implementing elements of the new incident management process.
Fast Facts for Board Members Webpages
The Land Board will next meet on Tuesday, February 21 at 9:00 am MT. The meeting will be held in he Boise City Council Chambers at city hall.
The new online resource for Land Board members and their staff, Fast Facts for Board Members, contains links to meeting materials and more. These new webpages provide general information about IDL, contact information for executive staff, outline the agency's authorities.
Employees Leaving IDL
We wish departing team members the very best in their new endeavors.
- Tyler Groth, Cataldo Forest Protective District
In Case You Missed It
One Team One Voice Webpage
Did you miss some important news? Are you curious about knowing what's happening across IDL? Our One Team, One Voice webpage contains an archive of IDL's newsletters covering:
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