Forests Pool Experts To Reduce Spending

Congress is leaning to austerity these days, so eastern Idaho national forests are pooling their resources to save money.

The Targhee and Caribou national forests, divided by the South Fork of the Snake River, are sharing their expertise. Including arrangements the two have made with other forests in recent years, the savings run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

By sharing personnel, they save money that can be pumped into campgrounds, forestry and other projects.

“The more money there is in fixed costs, the less flexibility there is to do projects on the ground,” Targhee administrative officer Chuck Sorenson said.

In October, when the Targhee had a vacancy in its engineer position and the Caribou had an opening for fire chief, they decided to expand jurisdictions instead of hiring new people. Now, the two forests have the same engineer and fire manager.

The savings in salary, benefits and office administration between those two positions are about $75,000 a year, Sorenson said. , DataTimes