So much Idaho endowment timber land has burned this wildfire season that state officials have altered the salvage sale process to allow clearcuts of 100 acres or more to be approved faster, the AP reports. Idaho’s state Land Board voted 5-0 this morning, with no debate, to speed salvage logging on an estimated 60 to 80 million board feet of timber that burned this year. State officials say the burned timber is susceptible to insect attack and can quickly lose value.

Current rules for state timber sales require Land Board approval of individual sales if they include clearcuts of more than 100 acres. But state forester David Groeschl told the board in a memo, “Setting a size threshold for approval is prudent for ‘green’ timber sales, (but) setting a size limit for salvage harvest units is arbitrary and nonsensical. When fires burn large landscape areas, keeping salvage units within the 100-acre size limit makes no biological or operational sense when most or all of the timber is dead and burned.”

The goal of a salvage sale is to recover the value of burned trees, reduce the threat of insect and disease  outbreaks, prevent further environmental damage and expedite forest recovery by replanting, Groeschl said.

All salvage sales still would go through the same staff reviews and would be presented to the Land Board for review in a monthly report. But they would be exempted from rules that would otherwise require direct board approval of sales with clearcuts of more than 100 acres; with development credits that exceed 50 percent of the net appraised sale value (33 percent of gross sale value); or on which the Department of Lands has received written public comments. The exemption will apply to salvage sales due to damage from fire, wind, insect or disease. AP reporter Keith Ridler has a full story here.