Idaho’s endowment forests are often the subject of passionate public conversation, and that is a good thing. These lands support Idaho’s public schools and other institutions and are managed – by Idahoans – with care and scientific rigor.
A recent op-ed about Priest Lake includes several misconceptions about how the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) and the State Board of Land Commissioners (Land Board) manage these trust lands. As stewards of Idaho’s endowment lands, we want to set the record straight.
The endowment assets are managed as a unified trust with the Endowment Fund Investment Board managing the financial assets and Idaho Department of Lands managing and protecting the land assets. Both entities are under the supervision of the Land Board.
MYTH: Idaho Department of Lands is clear-cutting “senescent forests” and converting them into tree farms.
FACT: The term senescent forest refers to stands in a state of biological decline. IDL does not manage endowment forests to reach senescence. As a trust land manager, IDL maintains forests in productive, healthy, actively growing conditions to ensure long-term revenue and ecological resilience. Regeneration harvests, including clearcuts in appropriate locations, are recognized, science-based silvicultural tools that help restore young, vigorous stands while protecting soils, water quality, and wildlife habitat for the long-term.
IDL is not converting forests into “tree farms.” Our forests are managed for long-term sustainability, ecological function, and consistent revenue for beneficiaries.
MYTH: Idaho Department of Lands has adopted a blanket 40–45 year timber rotation, similar to timber management on the West Coast.
FACT: This is an oversimplification. While IDL does use the Forest Projection System (FPS, developed by the Forest Biometric Research Institute) as one of several tools for forest growth modeling, rotation ages are set based on site productivity and inventory data from field measurements and LiDAR analysis, not an arbitrary timeframe.
In Idaho’s diverse landscape, high-productivity sites may reach commercial maturity in around 35 years. Others may require 85 years or more.
Most endowment forest stands fall somewhere between.
Rotation age is determined by site-specific biological growth, sustainability modeling, and long-term revenue considerations — not by a single statewide target.
MYTH: Timber harvests on endowment land are not sustainable or cannot support long-term revenue.
FACT: Sustainability is built into the trust mandate. Idaho’s endowment forests are managed under a sustained yield framework, ensuring that harvest levels remain stable over time, forest health is maintained, and timber revenues continue for future generations of beneficiaries.
Many Priest Lake stands are harvested after reaching maturity following timber harvests or stand replacing wildfires from decades ago.
MYTH: Revenue from endowment lands is only intended for public schools, and contributions are “token.”
FACT: Public schools are the largest beneficiary, but not the only one. By law and by trust structure, endowment lands support:
- Public schools
- Agricultural College
- Charitable Institutions
- Normal School
- Penitentiary
- School of Science
- State Hospital South
- University of Idaho
- Capitol Permanent Fund
Endowment lands and funds form a unified trust corpus, established by the United States at statehood. The state of Idaho — through the Land Board as trustee — has a fiduciary responsibility to manage these assets for all named beneficiaries.
Revenue from timber currently represents over 90% of annual income from land management, but Idaho’s endowment also includes 1.5 million acres of other revenue-producing lands and a highly diversified investment portfolio managed by the Endowment Fund Investment Board (EFIB).
The fund’s performance is among the strongest and most transparent public land trusts in the country.
MYTH: Idaho Department of Lands is “putting all its eggs in one basket” by relying on timber and acquiring additional timberlands.
FACT: This characterization misrepresents Idaho’s trust structure and investment strategy.
The land portfolio is increasingly diversified through commercial leasing, land exchanges, strategic acquisitions and limited dispositions.
EFIB manages a diverse, high-performing financial fund that mirrors private-sector best practices
Timberland acquisitions are guided by long-term expected returns, not short-term conditions.
Idaho’s combined land and financial assets form one of the nation’s most disciplined, well-managed trust systems.
Land dispositions over the last decade have produced approximately $330 million dollars. Of this, about $100 million has been reinvested in 54,000 acres of productive timberland, $144 million reinvested in financial assets, and $85 million available in the Land Bank which can be used to purchase more profitable lands or transferred to the financial asset.
MYTH: Engineered wood products will replace traditional timber markets, making Idaho’s forests less valuable.
FACT: Engineered wood products still require high-quality fiber, something Idaho’s managed forests are well-suited to produce. Traditional lumber and engineered wood rely on different grades and types of timber, and IDL forests contribute to both markets. These evolving markets strengthen, not diminish, the economic value of managed forests.
MYTH: Idaho Department of Lands logging is the primary driver of soil erosion and phosphorus levels in Priest Lake tributaries.
FACT: This conclusion is not supported by comprehensive landscape evidence.
The area around Priest Lake has seen substantial residential development, which also influences nutrient loads and water quality.
Historic U.S. Forest Service management up through the 1970s–’80s involved intensive harvests visible in Google Earth time-lapse imagery — activity that predates current conditions.
IDL applies stringent best management practices, stream buffers, and slope protections based on Idaho’s unique soils and terrain, meeting or exceeding Forest Practices Act requirements.
Any evaluation of phosphorus or sediment trends requires watershed-scale analysis that accounts for all land uses, not just selective interpretation of a single tributary.
In conclusion, Idaho’s endowment lands exist to provide permanent, long-term support for Idaho’s public institutions. IDL’s management is built on science, sustainability, transparency, and constitutional fiduciary duty. The challenges facing these forests — wildfire risk, changing markets, population growth, and ecological stress — require thoughtful, strategic stewardship.
That is exactly what IDL is committed to delivering.
Dustin Miller is the director of the Idaho Department of Lands.
