Idaho officials said the state is prepared to respond to a forecast extremely active peak fire season, despite the state legislature’s funding for wildfire activities running dry.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little, at a June 16 press conference, joined state, local, and federal partners to say the state is prepared – with the state’s firefighting resources fully staffed and investments in forest management and federal partnerships. The preparation, however, was called into question when it was revealed just before the press conference that the state legislature’s funds for wildfire response had hit $0.

State lawmakers voted to transfer $32.8 million to the wildfire deficiency fund on July 1, the first day of fiscal year 2027, but Little said the state would “pretty much burn through” the funds, given that an active fire season would cost the state $70 million or more, according to the Idaho Capital Sun. Any funds spent over that $32.8 million would be paid using “deficiency warrants,” or bills applied to future sessions of the Idaho Legislature, that would worsen an already tight budget squeeze.

“If we have an above-average fire season, we’ll probably run out of (the funding),” Little said at the press conference. “We’re going to be okay for a while, as long as we don’t have an abnormal fire year.”

Idaho is expected to have an abnormally active fire year. The National Interagency Coordination Center’s wildland fire outlooks list Idaho as having “significant” wildland fire potential from July through September, set up by above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation worsening drought throughout the majority of the state.

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“Above normal fire potential is forecast for portions of northern Idaho and southwest Montana in July, expanding to all of north Idaho and southwest Montana in August,” the National Interagency Fire Center said during the June release of the report. “Above-normal fire potential will also expand to all the northwest, including all of Idaho, western Wyoming, and southwest Montana.”