Arbor Day Update: Statewide Celebration Planned, Seedlings Available at IDL Offices and Planting Idaho Grant Recipients Announced
This year Arbor Day lands on Friday, April 28, and once again IDL will collaborate with the Idaho Forest Products Commission to distribute seedlings at no cost to the public from our supervisory area, satellite, and Boise staff offices. IDL appreciates the strong partnership it shares with the Commission and its executive director Jennifer Okerlund.
The Statewide Arbor Day Celebration in Boise will again be held at the Idaho State Museum in Boise on Friday, April 28, at 10 AM. Director Miller will offer remarks about the history and future of Idaho's working forests and Governor Little's Arbor Day proclamation will be read.
Additionally, a cooperative effort between the Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association, Avista Utilities, Rocky Mountain Power, Idaho Power and IDL resulted in 45 Arbor Day grants being awarded to Idaho communities. Each community received a $300 Planting Idaho grant.
Critchfield to Visit IDL Area Offices
On Wednesday, April 19, Land Board member Superintendent Debbie Critchfield will visit IDL's Ponderosa Supervisory Area office in Deary and the St. Joe Supervisory Area office in St. Maries. She'll also tour endowment land near Santa, ID, included in the Benewah County Land Exchange.
IDL Receives Grant for Roadside Fuel Breaks in Clark County
It is not uncommon to see fires along busy roads and highways during summer. Often fires can be started by dragging safety chains on trailers, blown tires, and hot exhaust from vehicles that pull to the side of the road, parking on dry, fine fuels. This creates a wildfire hazard that can threaten communities in the Wildland Urban Interface.
IDL applied for a grant through the federal Community Wildfire Defense Grant program to assist with roadside fuel breaks in Clark County. A $690,000 grant was awarded in March and will allow IDL and its partners to create right-of-way fuel breaks for approximately 53 miles, helping to decrease the threat of wildfire and protect about 700 homes and structures in Dubois, Kilgore, Spencer, and Medicine Lodge.
Clark County has regular fire occurrences along roadways and the goal of the project is to support firefighting efforts to minimize the number of acres burned by compartmentalizing the landscape.
Controller Woolf Highlighted Endowment Successes at IFG Contractors' Meeting in Moscow
On Monday, April 10, under the soaring mass timber roof of the University of Idaho's new ICCU Arena, Land Board member and State Controller Brandon Woolf spoke at Idaho Forest Group’s annual contractors’ meeting. He followed presentations by IDL’s Fire Management Chief Josh Harvey, Good Neighbor Authority Bureau Chief Jon Songster, and Lands Section Manager for Timber Sales and Contract Administration Jeremy Shawver.
Controller Woolf explained that one million acres of endowment timberland may only comprise 6.2% of Idaho’s productive timberland resource, but produces 32% of the state's fiber and sawlogs. Endowment land plays a crucial role in driving Idaho's $2.5 billion forest products industry.
Buy It Where You Burn It Forest Health Education Campaign
With winter finally departing Idaho, many will begin to enjoy Idaho’s wondrous outdoors and sit around campfires. It is important to know that firewood moved from another area to where you are camping poses a risk to the health of our forests.
That's a key message IDL seeks to deliver in a new forest health education campaign.
Invasive insects and diseases can hitch rides on and in firewood, spreading infection from where the wood was cut to where you camp. Even if you don’t see any pests with your naked eye, that doesn’t mean their tiny eggs or disease microbes aren’t there. By transporting firewood long distances, we may unintentionally be giving an invasive pest a free ride to a new area.
In recent news coverage Idaho State Forester Craig Foss explained “native trees have evolved defenses against the insects and diseases that they’ve been living with for thousands of years. Likewise, native predators eat native insects, and that can help keep their numbers in check. Sometimes, non-native insects and diseases arrive in a new area and have no predators in their new homes, and the trees have not evolved effective defenses against them.”
Read the news stories:
HELP SHARE THIS IMPORTANT MESSAGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Master Fire Agreement Update
IDL is pleased to report negotiations on the Master Fire Agreement with its federal partners have concluded successfully. The department anticipates the new agreement will be signed before the end of the month.
The agency appreciates the Land Board's unwavering support through the negotiations, Governor Little's extraordinary outreach to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, and the strong support of Idaho's congressional delegation and Idaho's forest products industry.
What's Next for the Recreation Bill
Senate Bill 1049 cleared the Senate on a vote of 25-9-1 and the House on a vote of 54-15-1. It was signed into law by Governor Little on March 20 and takes effect on July 1, 2023.
This stakeholder-sponsored bill aims to curb recreational impacts on endowment land. A diverse group of stakeholders, including the Idaho State ATV Association, Idaho Sportsmen, Idaho Recreation Council, Idaho Farm Bureau Federation and Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association developed the legislation.
This legislation was sponsored by Senator Mark Harris and Representative Jerald Raymond.
Planning is already underway to implement SB1049. Implementation will occur in three phases.
Phase 1 - Rulemaking
This month IDL will ask the Land Board to allow the department to engage in negotiated rulemaking. The legislation requires rulemaking to specify prohibited activities on endowment land that are subject to a warning ticket for minor first offenses, with second violations under the statute being punished with an infraction and $250 fine.
Phase 2 - Internal Processes and Training
The legislation protects citizens' due process rights by requiring the department to post visible signage in the area where use restrictions may apply, publish the restrictions on the agency’s website, and make the information available at the Department’s nearest Supervisory Area office. Defining the internal processes IDL will use and training staff will occur in May and June while the rulemaking proceeds.
Phase 3 - Public Education and Outreach
When the legislation takes effect on July 1, IDL will launch a public information and education campaign designed to maximize the deterrent effect of the new law. This campaign will be ongoing.
IDL Boise Staff Office Lobby Gets Much Needed Natural Resources Update
Until recently, you wouldn't know about IDL's unique and rich natural resource history when visiting the Boise Staff Office.
That's now changed.
Building on the agency's digital signage initiative for area offices, the Boise lobby now sports a monitor that loops curated video content about IDL's operations and accomplishments. This hi-tech display is balanced by a series of large, historical logging and fire photos framed in reclaimed wood. New photos will periodically rotate through the display.
Opposite of the television, a large, six-foot version of the agency's logo, again constructed from reclaimed wood, anchors the installation.
Ever budget conscious, costs for the installation were minimized as team member Scott Phillips generously donated his time, talents and the materials to construct the frames and one-of-a-kind sign.
  
Emerald Ash Borer Detection & Reporting
Early during the summer of 2022, an invasive pest known as the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis, EAB) was discovered in Forest Grove Oregon, just west of Portland. Prior to this discovery, the furthest west this pest had been detected was Colorado Springs, CO.
This discovery suggests the bug will soon arrive in Idaho, if it isn't already here.
While Idaho has no native stands of ash, the tree makes up a large percentage of urban canopies for many Gem State cities.
EAB is native to Asia and first discovered in the US in Michigan in 2002. Ash species in Asia that evolved alongside this pest developed natural resistance, and are not commonly killed by it. Because native ash trees in North America previously never encountered the bug, they are highly susceptible. Hundreds of thousands of native ash trees across America have already died.
IDL is working on a preparedness plan that will be shared with communities across the state. This plan seeks to limit the amount of damage that urban forests in Idaho's communities will sustain.
Employees Leaving IDL
We wish departing team members the very best in their new endeavors:
- Ray Shaw, Coeur d'Alene Staff Office
- Derek Kraft, Southwest Supervisory Area
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:
|
