Spring Fire Meeting
Earlier this week agency staff engaged with IDL Fire convened in Coeur d'Alene for the annual Spring Fire Meeting. Attendees included team members with dedicated fire responsibilities and those who primarily work in other areas, but participate in fire seasonally.
The meeting's agenda focused heavily on safety, mirroring the leader's intent guidance Director Miller provided to fire personnel. He wrote, "While Idaho's citizens and leaders expect the Idaho Department of Lands to suppress fires quickly with an eye for limiting costs, safety cannot and will not be compromised. It is imperative that you rely on your training, experience, and best judgement to ensure everyone's safety this fire season while conducting aggressive initial attack."
Dr. Randy Brooks, Extension Professor of Forestry with the University of Idaho, presented on wildland firefighter sleep and fatigue, and why it matters. Related to mitigating risks in this inherently dangerous profession, IDL's own Bryan Durkin, Assistant Fire Warden for the Southwest Forest Protective District, spoke about using the risk matrix to improve employee safety. Evans Kuo, a Type 1 Incident Commander with the U.S. Forest Service, also presented on data-informed strategic risk assessment
The theme of interagency collaboration continued with presentations from staff with the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) and National Association of State Foresters (NASF).
Katie Wood, NWCG Program Manager, outlined the role her organization plays in fire response and highlighted priorities, including modernizing how training is delivered. Jim Karels, NASF Fire Director, covered fire resource allocation and the role of the National Multi Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC). NMAC prioritizes and allocates resources during critical shortages of national resources such as smokejumpers, airtankers, or Type 1 Incident Management Teams (IMTs).
IDL Employees of the Year Announced
Employee of the Year for Quality Contributions - Chris Haines, GIS Analyst III, Boise Staff Office
While not always visible as the public face of the agency or the program he works in, Chris Haines is a main player in the success and accomplishments of the agency over the last year. He can always be counted on to approach problems methodically while delivering high quality products. On July 1, 2022, the Timber Sale Webpage went live. Chris worked with the timber bureau, built the database, developed “pro tasks,” and delivered training to internal and external customers. He grew as a presenter during this time on top of his already impressive GIS skills.
Besides developing this efficient and effective tool, Chris also utilized his automation skills on multiple projects. Most remarkable was his work with the new Arcade programming language, allowing the extension of ESRI data via attribute rules. These rules allow for the auto-filling of data elements and were used extensively in the timber sale datasets and the new Regulatory Notification application. Chris also worked on automating the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and endowment reports for fiscal year-end reporting, and upgrading the GIS tool that produces legal descriptions for timber sale and leasing documents. He authored over 15 separate web apps and dashboards and was a key figure in increasing the professionalism of maps that go before the Land Board and our used in public facing materials.
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Employee of the Year for Cohesiveness - Keith Zalewski, Resource Specialist Sr. - Forest Management, Priest Lake Supervisory Area
Keith Zalewski represents pride, duty, and stewardship on the lands he manages and inspires loyalty and dedication among his peers.
Having a high-profile forest management unit that encompasses the community in which you live lends itself to criticism and difficult conversations. Keith defends endowment land management and the agency mission, while being both transparent and empathetic. Although some members of the public may not agree with endowment land management, Keith is well-respected within his community.
Having an employee in your office that can bring people together to generate ideas and confront projects or obstacles is a powerful thing. Keith constantly reminds his teammates that everyone is there for the same thing, the land entrusted to our agency.
Keith is a remarkable employee and a huge asset to our agency. His character, integrity, and work ethic are why he was chosen as IDL’s Employee of the Year for Cohesiveness.
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Employee of the Year for Stewardship - Scott Hayes, Deputy Chief-Plans, Coeur d'Alene Staff Office
The Stewardship EOY category recognizes the employee who makes decisions and takes actions that positively affect the long-term financial returns for the agency and enhance/protect the health and resilience of Idaho’s natural resources.
Scott Hayes has earned this award.
The Idaho Master Wildfire Agreement, which after an intense three-year negotiation process was recently signed, required an extensive amount of behind-the-scenes work analyzing fire records data, tabulating costs, spending hundreds of hours working with GIS staff to build maps, and working to extract theoretical outcomes for the many iterations proposed by our federal partners and IDL leadership. Scott rolled up his sleeves and provided the crucial information IDL needed to make decisions throughout the negotiation process.
In addition to the hundreds of hours dedicated to the Master Agreement effort, Scott continued to perform the duties of his “day job” assisting in IDL’s cooperative effort with the Department of Environmental Quality to develop a statewide smoke management plan; researching remote fire detection cameras for future acquisition, adapting to ongoing changes in radio communications, serving as a technical expert to USFS communications staff at Interagency Dispatch Centers, and supervising staff that led the 2022 wildfire arson investigation in North Idaho that resulted in the arrest and conviction of the guilty party.
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Employee of the Year for Service - Audra Dau, Administrative Assistant 1, Clearwater Supervisory Area
Throughout the year, Audra Dau has continually demonstrated her value as an employee for the Idaho Department of Lands, not only on the Clearwater Supervisory Area, but throughout the agency. Her participation is habitually above and beyond her job duties. She is always active in all aspects of the department, continually demonstrating her knowledge of agency programs and caring about her co-workers and the department.
Audra is an ambassador for our agency and makes our customers feel good about state government and more specifically, the Idaho Department of Lands. She treats external and internal customers in a respectful and professional way. Audra has built positive working relationships throughout the agency, cooperating agencies, industry, and with the public. She consistently goes the extra mile when dealing with issues that affect people or the agency. She is always the first to help.
Whether it is helping during fire season, training new staff, or helping with hosting/planning an event or meeting, Audra consistently goes above and beyond to help us all, and always with a smile.
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Employee of the Year for Accountability - Brooke Heasty, Administrative Assistant 1, Coeur d'Alene Staff Office
The Accountability EOY category recognizes the employee who has invested in and helped to create an organizational culture that equips and entrusts its staff, makes good decisions, and gets things done.
Brooke Heasty embodies these characteristics and many more. She is a service-oriented person who cares that internal and external customers receive the highest level of assistance. She hires and onboards more than 90 AD and seasonal employees every year and knows them all by name – assisting them as needed throughout the wildfire season.
Brooke serves as primary contact and administrator for the Volunteer and State Fire Assistance grant programs, overseeing allocation, expenditure and tracking for hundreds of thousands of federal grant funds. She assists fire business staff in tracking bureau allocated general and dedicated funds and provides regular and always accurate guidance on which funds to use for a wide array of expenditure. Brooke also serves as the fire bureau fleet manager, travel coordinator, and schedule manager for the always on the go fire management bureau chief.
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Overall Employee of the Year - Jeremy Shawver, Lands Section Manager-Timber Sales & Contract Administrator, Coeur d'Alene Staff Office
Jeremy Shawver stepped into a newly created role and took on the monumental task of implementing major change and modernization of the timber program. He has been in a leader in IDL of leveraging ESRI tools to increase efficiency and transparency to internal and external customers. The Director’s Report for Land Board has been produced in a timely manner with exceptional quality. The format has been drastically simplified from the multitude of IDL’s Excel spreadsheets and workbooks with multiple points of duplicate data entry. To track all the salvage sale volume, Jeremy created a table to show the effect that salvage sales had on sale plan volume and value to help Land Board understand implications of the salvage sale program.
Due to some challenging health situations in the upper tiers of his chain of command, Jeremy stepped up to take the lead on rule making for how the state sells timber, including presenting multiple times to public meetings, legislative committees, and the Land Board. Additionally, he presented multiple timber sales to the board that landed outside IDL's approval policy and helped educate staff and board members on how we do business, including explaining how we handle timber sales that do not sell, appraisals, and bidding.
Jeremy has done all of these extra duties with class and dignity, projecting an air of professionalism that exemplifies IDL’s values. On top of this he has kept his family a priority with the extra travel required and has been an example of how to communicate through change and difficult situations.
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2023 Safety Award Update
The March 10, 2023, edition of IDL Safety News announced the creation of the Safety Program Employee Recognition Award. Originally, the plan was to award this recognition along with the Employees of the Year. Underscoring the importance of safety to the agency, the Executive Team chose to move this award cycle to the fall, so it could stand out more.
Nominations for the Safety Program Employee Recognition Award will open in the fall and the recipient will be announced in October.
Safety Program Employee Award Criteria:
- Demonstrates commitment to the health and safety of employees by identifying safety issues within their home office or for all IDL employees.
- Takes actions and makes recommendations to prevent employee injuries or illness.
- Recognizes unsafe conditions or practices and works to resolve issues.
- Consistently makes safety a priority.
Master Fire Agreement Signed
IDL is pleased to report the Master Fire Agreement with its federal partners has been signed. A joint news release was sent out May 2, 2023.
IDL greatly 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. The Idaho Legislature also deserves the agency's thanks; finalizing this agreement would not have been possible without the Legislature's support of fire modernization funding.
State Arbor Day Celebration
The State Arbor Day Celebration was held last Friday at the Idaho State Museum. Director Miller participated in the event by reading the Governor's Arbor Day Proclamation and sharing the history and future of Idaho's Working Forests.
Matt Perkins, IDL's urban interface/planning program manager, presented certificates to the Treasure Valley cities who have once again earned the title of Tree City USA.
A tree was planted in Julia Davis Park as part of the ceremony and in honor of Arbor Day.
IDL participated in Arbor Day statewide, with many supervisory areas holding local events. All area and staff offices distributed seedlings to the public that were graciously provided by the Idaho Forest Products Commission.
 
Wildfire Awareness Month Proclamation
On Friday, April 28, Governor Brad Little proclaimed May Wildfire Awareness Month. He signed the proclamation at the Wildland Fire Memorial at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Director Miller attended the event as well as Deputy Fire Chief - Operations Julia Lauch, IDL Fire Prevention Specialist Jennifer Russell, and Idaho Firewise South Idaho Project Manager Brett Van Paepeghem.
The proclamation brings awareness to the potential threat wildfire poses to homes and communities in Idaho and the need to prepare at both the community and homeowner level.
A vital part of increasing the survivability of homes and property is coordinated education and collaborative efforts. IDL and Idaho Firewise are two agencies working together to help citizens better prepare their homes and communities for wildfire.
Because an IDL Team Member Asked for It...
Because 1,106 endowment grazing leases cover 1,789,103 acres and provide 260,384 Animal Unit Months (AUMs) of forage...
Director Miller's Favorite Dad Joke This Week:
Q: What do you call a happy cowboy?
A: A jolly rancher.
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Rep. Raybould Expresses Support for IDL Fire
Rep. Britt Raybould wrote an opinion piece published in the Post Register noting the legislature's support this legislative session .
The representative noted that in 2023 the Idaho Legislature approved funding for IDL to modernize its in-state firefighting capacity. She mentioned the Master Fire Agreement was about to be signed, the implementation of the Cottonwood Forest Protection District and the approval for additional equipment and personnel to staff the new area to protect public and private property. She added that responsibility for Cottonwood represents an increase in IDL's overall firefighting obligations.
Raybould also explained the increase in funding for forest management to reduce potential fuel resources. She praised IDL for increasing the amount of harvested board feet, and noted she anticipates that amount will increase in future years. She alos expressed continued legislative support for use of Good Neighbor Authority to help manage federal lands.
Idaho is Training Loggers to Fight Forest Fires
In a news release last Friday, Governor Little explained how IDL is creating new opportunities to train loggers, foresters, and landowners of large tracts of industrial forestland to safely help fight wildfires, keep lands healthy, and save scarce firefighting resources.
In his first State of the State and Budget Address in 2019, Governor Little talked about Idaho’s leadership in embracing fresh, collaborative approaches to land and fire management. He pointed to the hundreds of ranchers and farmers who have become members of rangeland fire protection associations across southern Idaho.
“I want to carry over this successful wildland firefighting model to Idaho’s forestlands by expanding the initial attack capabilities of our loggers,” Governor Little said.
The IDL online fire training portal provides access to training resources that qualifies these boots-on-the-ground to safely fight fire within areas where the IDL provides fire protection. The portal is available at https://www.idl.idaho.gov/fire-management/fire-training-for-loggers-and-industrial-foresters/.
Doubling Down on Dad Jokes
Just when you thought the jokes couldn't get worse...
Q:What’s a sheep’s favorite car?
A: A Lamborghini.
Take Your Kid to Work Day
IDL's first ever "Take Your Kid to Work" event featured a solid turnout. This national day gives children access to the working world. At IDL, many of the participating kids took part in an agency-wide Zoom call with Director Dustin Miller, who reminded the children that much of the work that is done at IDL is to earn funding for Idaho public schools. Michele Andersen, Division Administrator of Operations, hosted the call, even including a scavenger hunt to get the young participants familiar with their parent’s work space.
 Take Your Kids to Work Zoom Meeting
 Tom Kearns putting his son to work
40 Years of Service - Congratulations Debbie Godfrey
Debbie Godfrey was recognized at the Spring Fire Meeting this week for her 40 years of service with the State of Idaho. Congratulations Debbie!
Ray Shaw Retirement
More than 50 people gathered at the Coeur d'Alene Staff Office to bid Ray Shaw farewell as he headed off into retirement.
In Aug of 2016, Ray and his wife Kathy moved up to the CDA office to start with IDL as the Northern IT Systems Coordinator after having worked for the Idaho Statesman in Boise for 25 years.
His position at IDL entailed all levels of integrating IT Level 2 equipment like routers, switches, and servers at all the Northern Area Offices and CDA Staff Office. Additionally, he supervised John Zukowski.
This position allowed Ray to forge strong relationships with area managers and staff.
Ray and his wife are now moving to Tennessee to be with their 2 daughters and their families...truthfully, it’s to be with the grandkids!
The duo sold their Post Falls home and bought a travel trailer and plan to take the long way to Tennessee with their son, touring the southern states and visiting relatives along the way. The will arrive in Tennessee this fall.
Advancing three decades in mere months
By Gregory Murdock, Financial Manager, and Robbie Johnson, PIO Senior
Tree products generated by IDL Forestry were once the main material used by IDL Fiscal. Back when accounting was done with paper, lots of paper. 35 years ago, the transition from pens, whiteout and typewriters to early computers was completed. Idaho’s Statewide Accounting and Reporting System, referred to as STARS, was launched.
Because the internet was still in its infancy, STARS was designed using a mainframe, which is basically a system of large computers that require storage space. The technology was in the same era as the Atari and Commodore 64, for those old enough to remember. When it comes to accounting, IDL Fiscal is charged with budget planning, financial management, procurement (buying what we need to function), and payroll for more than 600 employees, which includes seasonal and temporary employees. And IDL Fiscal manages all that with 1980s tools.
Now, a new system still in the baby stages is coming to Idaho. Luma. It uses the internet! Compatible with laptops and smartphones! The goal of Luma as stated by the State of Idaho’s Controller’s Office: “Acquire and implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that all state agencies will utilize for statewide unification in budget planning, financial management, procurement, payroll, and human capital management.”
However, it’s not like you can simply plug an Atari, Commodore 64, or STARS into the internet, restart, and go about your business.
 Gregory Murdock works in the 1987 and 2023 at the same time.
Instead, for IDL Fiscal, the change from STARS to Luma is like building a railroad while operating the train as it barrels toward unbuilt tracks. Except the new track must now be constructed for sophisticated high-speed light rail. The old train no longer matches the tracks. Both must be rebuilt at once.
The expectation is for IDL to transfer to Luma this summer. It might be a bit ugly. Much like a forest after a timber harvest. The trees are old and ready for logging – we know replanting and a new forest will come. But in the early stages, it’s not what it will eventually be. Still, the ugly stage is a necessary part of the process – in IDL Forestry and in IDL Fiscal. Two very different functions of our agency that have much more in common than paper.
Employees Leaving IDL
We wish departing team members the very best in their new endeavors.
- Shy Boisa, Coeur d'Alene Staff Office
- Kate Christensen, Coeur d'Alene Staff Office
In Case You Missed It
Here's a recap of other recent IDL newsletters you may find interesting:
One Team One Voice Newsletter Archive
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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