BOISE, Idaho — Governor Brad Little had a lot to say when we sat down with him on Tuesday — including more on Executive Orders and how fire and water management will play out in 2025.
President Trump has already signed more than 60 executive orders since taking office. It’s something Governor Little has paid attention to. I asked this. “Are we at the point where the courts will decide what is and isn’t constitutional?" Little said, "I mean there will be judicial issues, they’ll be congressional issues about funding and what he does some of this will be decided by the courts. Either Congress won’t appropriate money for it, or Congress will say the money we appropriated for will have to stay there. A lot of it’s driven by Democratic Attorney Generals.”
As we reported, Senator Jim Risch thanked President Trump for putting a stake through the heart of the Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project, something Little was happy to see. “I talked to some people at the White House when I was there. That was the only specific project that was on his executive orders.”
I wanted to know from the Governor how 2025 is shaping up for fire and water management. One thing he would like to see is increased wages for firefighters and more control of Idaho’s forests. For over a century the Southern Idaho Timber Protective Association’s firefighters have been protecting private, state, and federal lands in West Central Idaho.
Little explains. “If forest service can’t manage it and can’t get the timber harvested and can’t get more resilience, then we will. The big timber companies they pay into it, the small landowners pay into and the state pays into it the forest service has a different model but I think the state needs to expand to cover more of the forest service.”
Governor Little, Lt.Governor Scott Bedke and farmers across Idaho recently celebrated the completion of a new water agreement that protects Idaho agriculture and conserves water for generations.
I asked the Governor why this agreement is so important to all Idahoans. “Why was that for Idahoans such an important agreement? That water is what you know gives Idaho our quality of life for municipal use, but also for domestic use, mainly for irrigated agriculture. The bottom line is in a dry year there would be catastrophic events we fixed almost all of that.”
So far Idaho’s snowpack is looking good. Let’s hope it stays that way.
