IDL Managers Attended Spring Leadership Meeting in Idaho Falls, Forded a River
Last week area managers, bureau chiefs and executive team members convened in Idaho Falls for IDL’s annual two-day Spring Leadership Meeting. The group covered a lot of ground, literally and physically.
On the first day, the team discussed employee compensation, employee engagement, Bear Lake/public trust land, continuity of operations planning, and future proofing. Attorney General and Land Board member Raúl Labrador also visited with the group, asking questions about what IDL’s needs from his office and legal issues we see on the horizon.
On the second day, the group hit the road and traveled from Idaho Falls to Island Park and Henrys Lake, stopping at points of interest on endowment land along the way. At the stops the team learned about glamping leasing, toured transitional parcels ready to be leased or sold, and visited the site of a catastrophic, 100,000 acre rangeland fire that resulted in improved intra-agency cooperation for wildfire mitigation. Additionally, St. Joe Area Manager Tony Brede and Eastern’s LMR Resource Supervisor Meribeth Lomkin forded a river to install seasonal cattle fencing!
Many thanks are due to the entire staff at the Eastern Supervisory Area for hosting an outstanding Spring Leadership Meeting!
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Big Week in Fire Prevention News
The Governor proclaimed last week to be Wildfire Prevent and Prepare week. As part of the education process IDL provided a media blitz that included news releases, opinion pieces, videos on the website and on social media. The response from the media has been positive, especially regarding the Wildfire Alert System.
IDL created a webpage specifically for the educational outreach for the week which offered a number of videos about fire prevention.
IDL Firefighters Assisting Canada with Wildfire
IDL is supporting its Canadian counterparts with its early wildfire season. A fire suppression module made up of 12 firefighters and one crew boss are on the ground as part of the Northwest Compact.
IDLs team pulled firefighters from several of our Forest Protective Districts that include Pend Oreille, Kootenai Valley, Priest Lake and the Coeur d'Alene staff office.
The module was mobilized on Saturday, May 20 and arrived in Edmonton the next day. They are expected to be utilized for 14 days on the ground before returning home.
Assisting with Canada and states in the U.S. before Idaho's fire season hits with full force allows for additional training for our crews while other agencies pay for the wages for those firefighters.
Because an IDL Team Member Asked for It...
More than 90% of endowment revenue comes from our timber program. This bad joke is in honor of our timber.
Director Miller's Favorite Dad Joke This Week:
Q:What did the tree do when the bank closed?
A: It started its own branch
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Benton Butte
Approximately 2,600 acres of endowment land was impacted from the Benton Butte portion of the Cougar Rock Complex in 2021. Access to these parcels was just in the development stage and approximately 140MMBF of green timber (predominantly high value cedar) was impacted by the fire. Scarcity of resources due to numerous fires in the region and limited access were primary factors on this fire as multiple incident management teams oversaw this fire for the next 90 days. Limited access to the timber was a factor considered in the salvage timber sales.
The fire started July 7, 2021 with five salvage sales identified. Just two months later (Sept. 9) while the fire was still being managed, the Benton North Cedar Salvage sold.
The third salvage sale, Benton South Cedar Sale sold October 7, 2021, but the 4th salvage sale, Benton West Cedar Sale did not. The fire was still being managed.
It took two attempts with consultation with potential buyers and a re-evaluation of the appraisal to successfully auction the Benton Ridge Cedar Sale on Nov 11. 2021.
June 29, 2022 two salvage sales went up for auction. The Benton Middle Cedar Sale sold, however the Benton West Cedar Sale was not successful a second time.
May 16, 2023 after additional re-evaluation of the appraisal and further discussion with potential buyers, Benton West Cedar Sale was successful. On the same date the newly identified Benton Lookout Cedar Sale sold.
Of the 55MMBF sold to date, 30 MMBF was harvested and removed by the end of the 2022 calendar year.
Planting of the North, South, and Middle Cedar timber sales began May 10, 2023 and approximately 170,000 trees were replanted on fire impacted endowment land simultaneously as harvest operations are continuing. Thus, trees were planted as soon as the dead trees were removed!
 
Have You Heard How Many Timber Sale Notifications IDL Sent Last Year?
IDL sent more than 3,800 timber sale notifications via email and SMS/text messaging in the final six months of last year.
On average, each supervisory area has 170 Timber Sale Notification subscribers.
Inspired by the agency’s development of a Wildfire Alert system using the GovDelivery platform, the same system used to distribute this Director's Update newsletter, IDL launched a greatly improved Timber Sale Notification initiative in July of last year.
Under the new program, anyone can sign up to receive notifications for IDL timber sales via a self-serve form on the agency’s website.
Notifications are sent by both email and SMS/text messaging for endowment and Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) sales. The messages provide quick links to timber sale documents and connect users directly to the GIS-enabled timber sale app. Users can subscribe to receive notification from one of IDL’s ten supervisory areas or all.
The new system has been well received by industry. Because it also automatically posts the notifications to IDL’s website, purchasers can easily find sales information online without having to delve into the app.
Beyond ensuring potential bidders know auctions are scheduled, advertising timber sales more broadly helps the public understand the agency’s endowment mission and shows how IDL's GNA program helps improve the health of Idaho’s forests.
IDL Streamlines Compliance Process for Forestry Operators, Timber Harvesting
IDL now offers private landowners a new online app to help simplify applying for the Compliance/Notification. More than 2.8 million acres of timberland in Idaho is privately owned.
To comply with the Idaho Forest Practices Act and the Idaho Forestry Act that regulate timber harvesting activities and after-harvest slash hazards, forest landowners must obtain a “Certificate of Compliance/Notification of Forest Practice” before harvesting.
The new app is located on the IDL Forest Practices Act webpage. The app allows the person to create a map online that displays their proposed harvest area and special cautions/features identified within that area that might impact how they harvest their land, including streams or steep slopes and erodible soils.
This provides the private forestland owners and managers access to the same information IDL uses when issuing a forest practice notification and slash hazard compliance.
Doubling Down on Dad Jokes
Just when you thought the jokes couldn't get worse...
Q: What do loggers eat in the forest?
A: Mac and trees
Successful Training with Women in the Woods
Twenty one participants and 11 instructors, all women, took to the woods for hands-on forestry training. The event earned rave reviews from the participants. The participants said they really liked the all woman format, enjoyed learning outside, and liked the small group format for the rotating stations.
The women rotated through nine stations, with some of the favorites being finding and looking at bark beetles, learning how to mark trees for removal for different management goals, and pruning to protect trees from white pine blister rust.
Here is a comment from one participant:
"We touched on assessment as well as implementation. The decisions that go into the planting, tending and taking of trees are decisions based on information gathered using the simplest of tools (a hairbrush to reveal a canker! ) or the highly sophisticated laser hypsometer. And we had the opportunity to use all of them! I didn’t see your behind-the-scenes coordination of contributors and educators but I did see the result and it was incredible. The funds, the forest, the food… the oh so sweet hatchet! If yesterday’s event was itself a ‘forest’ it would get high marks in it’s planting for a strong and diverse stand of women and their contributions to Idaho’s trees! Thank you!"
Women in the Woods was the second event hosted by women foresters from Idaho Department of Lands and the University of Idaho Extension. The first event was Women and Families in Forestry held in March.
 Using hatchets to learn about forest health and bark beetle. Hatchets were donated by Idaho Forest Group.
 Discussion about forest management goals and objectives on their land.
IDL Safety: Heat Illness
Last year, IDL had multiple heat related reports of varying degrees within a short period of time. To help us be more proactive, Safety Officer Vikki Snider arranged a Micro Learning presentation conducted by Mike Gugino, Safety Consultant with Idaho's State Insurance Fund (SIF) regarding heat illness prevention and response.
The attached below is the PowerPoint from the Micro Learning session, as well as other information put together by Vikki to help you to be better prepared to prevent, recognize, and respond to, the different degrees of heat related illnesses.
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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