Wlidfire Summit

Boise, ID
January 18, 2008

Last summer, Idaho burned nearly two million acres of the nine million acres that burned nationally, and we hold the claim to the largest wildfire of the season, the Murphy Complex.

That is why I held a fire summit in Boise on January 18. It was a meeting with state and federal agency leaders, county commissioners, Gov. Butch Otter, and state legislators, including Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, who was directly impacted by the Murphy Complex Fire this last season.

The impact of the fires was felt across Idaho, not just in areas actually burned or threatened by flames. In the Boise Valley, for instance, we suffered through weeks and weeks of poor air quality, as smoke filled the air. Additionally, the recreation industry lost millions as people canceled reservations.

At the Summit, we started the discussion with the lessons that we learned from this last fire season and then turned toward the challenges we will face this next season and how to prepare for those challenges. This meeting served as a venue for our land managers and stakeholders to learn from one another so that we can all maximize our fire resources here in Idaho—hoping to avoid another smoky summer.