Gov. Brad Little in an April 22 executive order directed the Idaho Department of Lands to expand its partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and increase management activity that reduces fire risk in national forests.

His order, the Make Forests Healthy Again Act, complements a March 1 executive order by President Donald Trump and an April 3 memorandum by USDA secretary Brooke Rollins that streamline permitting and expand the use of emergency authorities and categorical exclusions on national forests.

The federal order and memo clear the way for state, federal and local partners to carry out more immediate management actions such as timber harvests, mechanical thinning, forest health projects, prescribed burns, fuel breaks and aggressive initial attack of wildfires, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

The Idaho executive order takes advantage of the state’s longstanding Good Neighbor Authority and Shared Stewardship programs, which target landscape-scale projects across ownership and jurisdictional boundaries.

The order says state forest action plan maps that identify forest health and fire risk, and the 2025 fire risk map, will be provided to the Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to ensure inclusion in the emergency situation designation to allow for increased forest management. And IDL will work with the Forest Service to update and expand Good Neighbor and Shared Stewardship agreements.

Under the administration of President Joe Biden, IDL could assist the federal government in expediting on-the-ground management activities in two small areas of national forests in Idaho, according to the release.

“For too long, millions of acres of national forests in Idaho have remained totally untouched, creating a tinderbox of fuel that threatens communities, air quality and the environment,” Little said.

Rollins said in the release that she commends Little “for acting quickly to fix our national forest emergency.” Americans rely on forests in Idaho, “and this executive order will go a long way towards strengthening the timber industry in the state and minimizing harmful pests, disease and risk of fire.”

The Idaho Farm Bureau Federation strongly supports the emphasis by Trump and Little on “returning active management to federal lands” in the state, CEO Zak Miller said. “Our members have been personally devastated by the negative effects of reduced federal management over the years” and the bureau looks forward to “cooperatively increasing the level of management of federal lands in Idaho so they will be as productive and healthy as our state lands.”

“There is critical work to be done in our forests, near our communities and on private lands to reduce hazardous fuels and better manage wildfires,” John Robison, Idaho Conservation League public lands and wildlife director, told Capital Press. “Bringing additional resources and capacity to these communities can really make a difference.”

The league supports protecting communities and key resources such as clean water, old-growth forests and sensitive species, he said. Good Neighbor Authority can address many of these in addition to helping to reduce wildfire risk on private property and supporting recreation access, forest products, jobs and increased efficiencies and partnerships.

“We do have concerns if the Department of Agriculture declares nearly all of our national forests a national emergency, because if everything is a priority, nothing is,” Robison said.

The Conservation League and others will work to make sure the expanded authorities do not “sideline public input, bypass environmental review or leave communities out of the conversation” and that they “stay grounded in community needs and in protecting and restoring our natural resources, he said.

Communities are a major aspect of any discussion about forest health and wildfire, Robison said.

“We don’t know where the fires are going to come from, but we know where the homes are,” he said. “So it makes sense to start at the homes and work out from there.”