STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Another donor to President Trump's election campaigns is expected to be confirmed by the Senate for a leadership role in his administration. Michael Boren, an Idaho software developer and rancher, is in line to oversee the Forest Service, an agency he has frequently argued with. NPR's Kirk Siegler reports.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: If confirmed as U.S. agriculture undersecretary, Michael Boren would supervise the Forest Service as it faces one of its biggest crises in modern times. Wildfires are getting more deadly and destructive due to climate change and a buildup of fuels from prior management decisions, and earlier this year, President Trump's DOGE eliminated thousands of positions at the agency. The president's proposed budget calls for even deeper cuts as summer fire season is well underway in the West. At a confirmation hearing yesterday, Boren sought to reassure Senate Democrats.
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MICHAEL BOREN: I have not had an experience with the Forest Service yet where I understand what the staffing levels are and how they're being applied, but I am very familiar with resource-constrained organizations, having worked in one and for one.
SIELGER: Boren founded a Boise software company with his brother that's now worth $6.5 billion. In Idaho lately, he's mostly in the headlines for clashes with the Forest Service around a large ranch he owns in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. He's been accused of flying a chopper close to an agency trail crew and fought legal battles over an airstrip he built for private planes to access his ranch.
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BOREN: As a landowner, I've had disagreements from time to time with the Forest Service. Typically, they've been very aggressive at the beginning of those disagreements.
SIELGER: Boren said he and the agency have always talked things through and found solutions. But some of his neighbors tell a different story. In the West right now, there are growing tensions over an influx of ultra-wealthy landowners. In the mountain town of Stanley, longtime environmental activist Jon Marvel says Boren's appointment to oversee the Forest Service is ironic.
JON MARVEL: But it's not surprising in light of the general attitudes in the current administration, where they've turned against public lands as a positive value for the American people.
SIELGER: Boren told the committee he'd fight for everyone to have access to public lands. When asked if he'd recuse himself from any Forest Service decision that affected him, Boren promised he'd follow the advice of Agriculture Department ethics attorneys. His nomination has not yet advanced to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.
Kirk Siegler, NPR News, Boise. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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