U.S. Official Under Investigation for Allegedly Redirecting Wildfire Resources to Personal Idaho Ranch

The Trump administration is under pressure to investigate claims that Michael Boren, a senior official responsible for the U.S. Forest Service, urged staff to allocate extra resources to contain a wildfire near his Idaho property.

Three Democratic senators have accused Boren of inappropriate interference in a letter reviewed by the Guardian, seeking answers from Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. Boren holds the position of Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the USDA.

Senators Ron Wyden, Amy Klobuchar, and Martin Heinrich expressed serious concern that Boren allegedly used his authority in July to pull firefighting personnel and equipment away from other active blazes to focus on a fire near his private Idaho ranch.

They wrote, “We request a full investigation into the nature and extent of Boren’s involvement in the response to the Cabin Creek Fire and a detailed accounting of safeguards the agency has implemented or plans to implement to prevent political interference and conflicts of interest in wildfire response.”

The senators’ letter follows a Washington Post report earlier this month quoting unnamed Forest Service officials who said Boren—who owns a 480‑acre ranch in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area—contacted agency staff several times in mid‑July to question why additional aircraft were not being deployed against the Cabin Creek fire in Idaho, which scorched several acres of the Sawtooth National Forest.

The Cabin Creek fire, ignited by an unattended campfire on July 12, was fully contained by July 15 after burning approximately seven acres.

Six current and former Forest Service officials told the Post that the response to the fire was disproportionate to its size—a blaze that posed little threat to life or property. Documents reviewed by the Post also reportedly confirm that Boren personally reached out to agency staff regarding the incident.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture declined to comment on the senators’ letter.

A USDA spokesperson told the Guardian last month that Boren “is expected to have regular contact with the agencies he oversees,” adding that “the fact that a senior government official would be monitoring and communicating with other government officials about an event he oversees is a non‑story.”

“Undersecretary Boren reported a fire near his property,” they said, adding that “just as any citizen would, we would hope to be informed of a wildfire threat in our area. However, he never pressured leadership or ordered additional resources to fight this or any other fire.”

In their Thursday letter, the senators wrote that “during this record‑setting fire season, larger fires have not received even a fraction of the same resource commitment.”

“The personal interests of political employees should not influence the allocation of wildfire resources to communities at risk,” they added.

They argued that Boren’s alleged actions could constitute a misuse of taxpayer funds, jeopardizing American families by diverting scarce resources from high‑priority wildfires threatening other communities across the region and the country.

“Political interference in wildfire response jeopardizes lives, property, and federal resources,” they wrote. “We request that you respond by September 10, detailing how the Department will prevent such inappropriate interference—or even the appearance of it—in wildfire response going forward.”

Source link