Bill to allow Idaho to sue federal government over wildfire mitigation clears House

BOISE — The House on Wednesday voted to approve a bill that would allow state agencies to fight fires on federal lands and sue the federal government to recover the costs of those efforts.

House Bill 389 would add to existing laws about civil liability for uncontrolled fires that are considered a nuisance to include “any land within the state of Idaho, regardless of ownership status.”

The bill would allow the governor to declare an emergency if a fire is burning uncontrolled on federal lands that “threatens the health, safety, and welfare of Idaho citizens or that is imminently threatening the property of the state of Idaho,” which would then allow state resources to go toward controlling and extinguishing the fire.

Bill sponsor Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, said she brought this because of a problem she has seen where fires on federal land get large before the federal agencies start working to control them.

“We have to do something, or we’re not going to have a tree left in this state,” Boyle said, “and we’re not going to have any watersheds or wildlife left.”

Rep. Charlie Shepherd, R-Pollock, spoke in favor of the bill and expressed frustration about the fire damage in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.

“It’s destroyed,” he said. “It looks like a nuclear bomb went off, and they’re proud of it.”

Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, said the bill “goes up beyond what we think about when it comes to our power as a state, and makes sure that we flex our muscles, we flex our arms, and take our power back to the state.”

The bill would allow the state attorney general to pursue a civil lawsuit within 10 years.

This long statute of limitations concerned Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, who argued that most tort claims must be filed within 180 days.

“Ten years is very, very unusual in our code, and it is unusual for a reason,” Gannon said. “Because witnesses die. Evidence is destroyed. Evidence disappears. It’s difficult to find somebody who might be a key witness.”

Rep. Monica Church, D-Boise, said she was concerned about how the bill would conflict with the state’s current master cooperative wildland fire management agreement — which the state has with federal agencies regarding how costs are reimbursed and jurisdictions for assisting with wildfire fighting operations.

She said under the current agreement, it seemed unlikely the state would be able to get reimbursed for emergency costs if the state went in without permission from the federal agency.

“I’m worried that this is going to be a fiscal nightmare as we take on all of these costs and we aren’t going to get reimbursed,” Church said.

The bill passed 63-6, with one absent, and will go to the Senate.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.

How they voted

Yes: Kyle Harris-R, Dale Hawkins-R, Lori McCann-R, Brandon Mitchell-R, Heather Scott-R, Charlie Shepherd-R