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Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Idaho preps to roll out artificial intelligence in state government
(Getty Images) Visitors to the Idaho Division of Human Resources's website can get quick answers from a new chatbot — powered by artificial intelligence, or AI — that combs through state government websites. So, we asked it: 'How many state employees does Idaho have?' The chatbot's answer didn't make sense. The tool falsely claimed nearly a third of Idaho's over 2 million population works for the state. 'Idaho has approximately 713,015 state employees as indicated by the most recent data available,' the chatbot replied. The right answer, though, depends on how you ask the question. When you ask more specifically about how many 'active' state employees there are, Idaho HR Administrator Janelle White explained, you can get a better answer. 'Idaho currently has approximately 23,546 active state employees employed across various government agencies,' the chatbot replied, according to a screenshot she shared with the Idaho Capital Sun. The chatbot is one of the few ways Idaho state government agencies are already using AI. But with high interest — and concern — from state agencies and employees, Idaho's Office of Information Technology Services is preparing a yearslong plan with guidance on how to responsibly use AI in state government. 'While we're measuring and mitigating risks, we're making sure that we're not getting in the way of it being launched. We want to — we really want to unleash this to the workforce,' Idaho Office of Information Technology Services Administrator Alberto Gonzalez said in an interview. 'I'm a huge fan of automation and machine learning already anyways, because it can make government way more effective and more efficient. And I believe that those that are not using automation are doing a disservice to the state.' By August, Gonzalez said Idaho state government agencies can start using publicly available tools like ChatGPT or Gemini in public facing chatbots, which have been largely blocked. To him, the use cases for AI in state government are 'endless.' The technology can be used for routine tasks, like customer service and data entry, to quicken time-intensive reports, and even to detect fraud, waste and abuse, he said. One of the biggest AI concerns for state employees is how widely data can be accessed, or data governance, Gonzalez said. That's part of what goes into the IT office's work with state agencies to prepare them to roll out AI tools. Some national experts also say AI could reduce the workforce. That could be true, Gonzalez acknowledged, but it would take a while. Using the technology more could mean agencies automate more tasks to free staff time up, he said. 'So then you can use that staff to do something — either slow down the growth, so that you don't have to grow government … or potentially through attrition, you could reduce the workforce by leveraging AI,' Gonzalez said. 'I know that that's a more sensitive topic, but I'm talking over years,' he said. Last month, the agency announced the guidance to state lawmakers at the Idaho Legislature's AI Working Group. But the guidance hasn't been shared with agencies yet while it's under legal review. The Idaho Capital Sun obtained a copy of the draft guidance through a public records request. The draft AI guidance lays out a four-step plan — over two years — to implement AI in Idaho state government agencies. First, Idaho would set up a foundation — establishing structures to govern AI use, roles for state agencies and departments, oversight and more. Then, Idaho would initially implement AI in pilot runs. Later, Idaho would expand implementation and continue to fine tune AI's use in state government. 'Idaho's tiered guidance model applies rigorous scrutiny to high-risk systems and streamlines review for low-risk applications,' the draft guidance's introduction reads. 'This structure empowers the state to capture immediate value from early implementations and build institutional capacity systematically. Through this balanced approach, Idaho is poised to transform its citizen services, operational workflows, and decision-making culture, anchoring it in data-driven insights and public accountability.' And building trust is one of the main goals. 'Every AI system will meet clear standards for explainability, auditability, and ethical alignment,' a short summary of the guidance reads. 'Transparency isn't optional, it's foundational.' Initially, Congress's massive federal spending and tax cut bill that became law last week would've blocked states from regulating AI through state laws for 10 years. But the U.S. Senate nearly unanimously removed the moratorium, States Newsroom reported. In 2024, Idaho passed three laws to regulate AI — targeting explicit and political deep fakes, and AI-generated material that is exploitative of children. At the Legislature's AI work group's meeting last month, the Idaho Office of Information Technology Services shared copies of its draft AI guidance with state lawmakers for review. For the rollout of the public HR chatbot, the Idaho Division of Human Resources worked with the Office of Information Technology Services, White told the Sun. The Sun sent her a screenshot of the chatbot appearing to wildly overestimate Idaho's state employee workforce. She, and the Idaho DMV administrator, both suggested they would've asked it differently — with more specific details, like asking for the active workforce. 'The information provided by the chatbot will only be as good as the question asked [and the information it has access to],' White said in an email on Monday. '… Part of the learning curve with AI and chatbots, is being really good at asking questions!' But on Tuesday, when the Sun asked the chatbot the same question White asked, the chatbot couldn't answer. 'I don't have the current number of active state employees available,' it said. The Idaho Department of Motor Vehicles, or DMV, is also using an AI-powered chatbot as part of a pilot project. But the tool is only available for some DMV employees to use for testing — and is not yet open to the public, officials say. It won't go public until it's refined, Idaho DMV Administrator Lisa McClellan told the Sun in an interview. 'Until it's ready for prime time, we won't even use it internally in our production environment,' she said. Drawing from internal policy documents, manuals and Idaho state laws, the tool is meant to quicken the process of searching through reams of information, she explained. The tool doesn't have access to any personally identifiable information, she said. Only a handful of ITD employees, who mostly already know the answers to the questions they ask the tool, are using it, McClellan said. Right now, they're testing how accurate its answers are, and learning how to best ask questions to get correct answers, she said. Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ghost wolves: As Idaho aims to reduce its wolf population, advocates worry counts aren't accurate
A member of Wapiti Lake Pack is photographed near the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park in July 2020. The Wapiti Lake Pack is one of nine wolf packs that was living in Yellowstone as of December 2024. (File photo courtesy of Jim Peaco/Yellowstone National Park) EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the final installment of Howl, a five-part written series and podcast season produced in partnership between the Idaho Capital Sun, States Newsroom and Boise State Public Radio. Thirty years after wolves were brought back from near extinction in the U.S. Rocky Mountains, the state of Idaho is back in the wolf-killing business. Based on direction from the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game is working to reduce the state's wolf population by more than 60% over six years. According to the Idaho Gray Wolf Management Plan 2023-2028, the state's goal is to reduce the wolf population down from the estimated average of 1,270 wolves to a new average of about 500 wolves, with a low of about 350 wolves. Based on the population dynamics in Idaho's wolf population, the state estimates humans would need to kill about 37% of Idaho's estimated wolf population each year for six years to reach the goal of an average population of 500 wolves While nearly everyone in the wolf debate says it's extremely difficult to get an accurate count of the animals within the state's borders, some wolf advocates don't agree with Idaho officials on how many wolves are actually in the state due to the research methods used until recently. And some worry that if the state doesn't have an accurate wolf population count, it doesn't know how many wolves should be killed under the management plan. Idaho legislators are driving the policy by responding to concerns from farmers and ranchers who have had animals like sheep and cattle killed by wolves. Between 2014 and 2023, wolves in Idaho killed a minimum of 1,291 domestic livestock animals, according to state records. The losses affected 299 different ranchers and farmers. But for Marcie Carter, one of the early members of the Nez Perce Tribe's program that managed wolves in Idaho, the expansion of wolf hunting and trapping and the government-sponsored killing of wolves in Idaho is a grim reminder of the eradication campaign that nearly killed off all wolves in the U.S. Rocky Mountains by the 1940s. Wolves are a native species in Idaho and all across the U.S. But as setters moved West, the U.S. government passed wolf-killing bounties meant to encourage westward expansion. By 1926, rangers had killed the last wolves in Yellowstone National Park. The last wolf in Idaho was killed in the 1930s, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. In one of the most successful and controversial wildlife comeback stories in American history, the U.S. government reintroduced wolves to Yellowstone and Idaho in 1995. 'We did all this great work, and we spent hours and hours out in the woods and then to come to this point where they're treated like vermin, it's really disorienting,' said Carter, who now works as the watershed coordinator for the Nez Perce Tribe's Department of Fisheries Resource Management. Having livestock killed is a big deal to the rancher who owns that animal. But some wolf advocates say that, big picture, the number of livestock killed by wolves is pretty low every year. From 2018 to 2022, there were an average of 259 livestock deaths each year in Idaho that were deemed 'confirmed' or 'probable' wolf kills, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. (Depredation is the term officials use when a predator like a wolf kills or maims livestock like cattle. Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials said 'confirmed' or 'probable' determinations are dependent on sufficient evidence remaining, which is dependent on very rapid detection and investigation of the carcass and minimal disturbance by scavengers. Those criteria often aren't met in remote environments, therefore the documented 'confirmed' and 'probable' depredations should be considered a minimum number, Fish and Game officials said.) That's in a state with about 2.5 million head of cattle and 235,000 sheep – including on feedlots and dairies where wolves and other predators are not present. That means wolves kill an average of about 0.01% of Idaho's combined cattle and sheep population each year. All sides in the wolf debate agree it is extremely difficult to produce an exact population count of wolves in Idaho. The state is too big, the terrain is too rugged and wolves are too elusive for that to happen. Instead, officials use multiple different techniques to estimate that wolf population. Until recently, Idaho Fish and Game officials used wildlife trail cameras and a statistical model to estimate the state's wolf population. Some outside researchers expressed concern with the accuracy of using wildlife cameras to estimate wolf populations. Scott Creel, an ecologist and conservation biologist who works for Montana State University, has studied carnivores since 1987 and studied wolf-elk interactions since the 1990s. Creel has been critical of wolf population methods used in Montana and Idaho. 'I was frustrated with seeing methods being used to estimate wolf numbers that were very indirect and, in my opinion, were unlikely to produce accurate estimates,' Creel said. 'I was particularly worried that the methods I was seeing used would produce estimates that wouldn't change, even if the wolf numbers were really changing. So the wolf population would appear to be constant, even though the policy changed just because of the way we were counting them, which is extremely oblique in both of the two methods that I was reviewing.' The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks declined an interview request for this story. Creel stressed that accurately estimating wolf populations is extremely difficult. Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials disagree with Creel's criticism, but acknowledged trail cam population estimation methods become less reliable when the number of images of wolves from the trail cameras declines. In July 2024, Idaho Fish and Game announced a new wolf population estimation procedure. Instead of using trail cams, officials are using new methods involving combination of genetic and information taken from a tooth of every wolf mortality documented by the state, information on the biological range of wolf population dynamics, a statistical model, and actual wolf hunting and mortality data. It's called the ABC method, short for Approximate Bayesian Computation, which Idaho Fish and Game officials said has been used widely in other scientific fields like epidemiology and population genetics. Biometricians use that method to estimate the total number of new litters of wolf pups each year and the average estimated wolf population. When he introduced the new wolf population estimate in July 2024, Idaho Fish and Game Wildlife Bureau Chief Shane Roberts said the new population estimation method independently produced similar population estimates to the trail cam method's population estimates from 2019 to 2022 using different data. Roberts said that gives him confidence the new method produces consistent and reasonable population estimates. He also said it backs up the old trail cam method that outside researchers have publicly criticized. 'Although no population estimation technique is perfect, we now have an independent source of information that validates the camera-based estimates that we've been using to guide wolf management since 2019 and refutes the idea that those estimates are wildly erroneous, as some have claimed,' Roberts said during the July 2024 Idaho Fish and Game Commission meeting. But for 2023, the trail cam method and the new method produced different population estimates. The new method estimated 1,150 wolves, while the trail cam method estimated 840 wolves, Roberts said. Even though it has been a year since Idaho Fish and Game officials announced their new estimation methods, the methods do not appear on the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's website for public review. Howl reporters Clark Corbin and Heath Druzin asked Idaho Fish and Game officials for a copy of the state's new methods for estimating the wolf population. In March, Fish and Game officials said the only available information is a YouTube video of officials announcing their wolf population presentation. The relevant discussion takes place more than four hours into a six-hour Idaho Fish and Game Commission meeting on July 24, 2024. Officials said they are working to publish their methods. 'We are in the process of preparing a manuscript for peer-reviewed publication on the method, which we hope to have submitted for publication later this spring or early summer,' Roberts said in March. As of June 24, the department had not yet published its new wolf population estimation methods in a peer-reviewed publication. Roberts said June 24 that officials are close to submitting it and hope to have it submitted for peer-reviewed publication before the upcoming July 17 Idaho Fish and Game Commission meeting. Despite questions and criticisms of past methods, Roberts said he is confident in using the new population estimation to drive wolf management decisions in Idaho. 'Because we were able to produce five years of virtually identical estimates between (the new methods) and the camera-based methods we've used before, we are confident this transition will result in consistent information to inform wolf management in the state,' Roberts said during the July 2024 Idaho Fish and Game Commission meeting. Bob Crabtree, who founded the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center, said accuracy in wolf population estimates is extremely important. 'It's like asking a business owner to try to make a profit or try to avoid losing money by not knowing what items they have on the shelves that they stock in their store,' Crabtree said. 'Population size, or abundance, is the No. 1 criteria used to successfully manage and conserve and restore wolves. And without it, you just can't.' Many wolf laws and policies rely on wolf population estimates. State Sen. Van Burtenshaw, a Republican rancher from the town of Terreton, Idaho, sponsored Senate Bill 1211, which Gov. Brad Little signed into law in 2021. The law removed the limit on the number of wolf tags hunters could buy each year, legalized wolf trapping year round on private property and allowed the state of Idaho to contract with federal agencies and other third parties to kill wolves. Burtenshaw said he pushed for the law because his constituents told him there are too many wolves eating too much livestock. 'The big thing was the amount of farmers and ranchers that were dealing with significant losses because of the wolf population,' Burtenshaw said. 'Originally when the wolf was reintroduced, they were talking about 150 or something in the Idaho region. And we had well over 1,500, almost 1,600, for a long time. So the depredation cost was huge to those that had livestock and other animals as well.' 'That population has kind of got out of balance, and that's what we're trying to figure out is where that balance is,' Burtenshaw said. Idaho sold more than 53,000 wolf tags to hunters in 2023 even though there are only an estimated 1,150 wolves in the state, according to documents provided by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. More than half of those wolf tags were sold in the popular 'sportsman's package,' which includes a hunting/fishing combo license and tags for deer, elk, bear, wolf, mountain lion, turkey, salmon and steelhead. (State officials said they do not know the percentage of hunters who bought a wolf tag because wolves are the primary animal they are hunting vs. the percentage of hunters who primarily hunted other animal species but still bought a wolf tag.) From the 2019-20 wolf hunting season through the 2023-24 hunting season, hunters and trappers killed an average of more than 400 wolves a year in Idaho, according to Idaho Fish and Game. In addition to expanding wolf hunting and trapping, Idaho also financially reimburses expenses for hunters who successfully kill a wolf. Since 2019, the state of Idaho has paid out $849,750 in reimbursements to successful wolf hunters, according to data provided by the Idaho Fish and Game. The money is Idaho Fish and Game funding that is transferred to the Wolf Depredation Control Board for the Foundation for Wildlife Management's reimbursement program, Fish and Game officials said. Separately, the foundation has applied for and received Idaho Fish and Game Commission Challenge Grants. 'Our end (goal) in this originally was focused on trying to direct the harvest where we were seeing the greatest impacts – chronic livestock depredation, elk populations below objective, where predation was a factor – to try to focus that effort where harvest at that time was not sufficient to stabilize the wolf numbers,' said Idaho Fish and Game Deputy Director of Operations Jon Rachael, who was an original member of the wolf recovery team. In the context of hunting, the word harvest means successfully killing a game animal such as a wolf. The reimbursement money can be used for firearms, ammo, traps, trail cameras, gear, license fees, fuel and even ATV vehicles used to scout or hunt wolves, according to the foundation. Rusty Kramer, the president of the Idaho Trappers Association, said he has used state reimbursement money to make payments on his truck, which he uses when he is tracking and trapping wolves. The standard reimbursement in Idaho is capped at $750 per wolf. But in areas where elk populations are below their objective, or livestock have been repeatedly killed by wolves, the reimbursement limit increases to $2,000 per wolf. Some wolf supporters call the program a bounty system and scoff at the idea of the state sending checks to people who shot wolves to help pay off their trucks and ATVs. But Idaho Fish and Game officials insist it is only a reimbursement program – not a bounty. 'Any of the funds that come from the state of Idaho, from the Wolf Depredation Control Board, or, in the past, from the Fish and Game Commission Challenge Grants did require that this money was not just a straight payment of a certain amount, but rather the individual claiming compensation present evidence of their expenses,' Rachael said. 'And so in that regard, it was compensation for their investment of buying traps or fuel to run a trap line.' When the state kills wolves, it doesn't just kill adult wolves that are confirmed to have attacked livestock. The state, other government agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services and third party contractors can kill wolf pups in their dens and their nursing mother – even if those specific wolves never attacked a cow or sheep. 'You can kill wolf puppies,' said Carter Niemeyer, a former government trapper who helped bring wolves back to Idaho and Yellowstone National Park 30 years ago and opposes killing wolf pups and many of Idaho's wolf policies. 'They're plum legal if you kill them at a day old. Stomp their head in with your boot if you want to.' Students at Timberline High School in Boise spoke out a few years ago after the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services killed wolf pups from a pack that the school symbolically adopted, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. In an October 2021 letter to Suzanne Asha Stone, a prominent Idaho wolf expert and a member of the wolf reintroduction team, former U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt, confirmed the government killed eight juvenile wolves in Idaho in an attempt to relocate the larger pack and reduce the number of livestock killed. Carter, who was on the Nez Perce Tribe's wolf reintroduction team in the 1990s, is sickened that the state would authorize the killing of wolf pups that never disturbed livestock. 'I mean, it's one thing to shoot an adult,' Carter said. 'But to trap puppies in the den hole? It's just so awful. And I don't understand how people can be that hateful to one species of animal that has a right to be here. But for sure, the state has not done their due diligence.' 'I'll just stop there,' Carter added. 'The state of Idaho is not taking care of this species.' Since wolves were removed from the Endangered Species List in 2011, the USDA Wildlife Services and other agencies have killed 961 wolves in Idaho, according to Idaho Department of Fish and Game documents. Since 2018, Idaho Fish and Game has spent $817,668 on lethal control actions to kill wolves in Idaho, according to documents the department provided. That total specifically refers to Idaho Fish and Game funding through the Wolf Depredation Control Board that was not spent on reimbursements made by the Foundation for Wildlife Management. One of Idaho's policies is that even when nonlethal tools are available to reduce conflicts between livestock and wolves, the state can kill wolves without first trying the nonlethal tools. 'Livestock producers may use deterrents to aid in protecting their property; however, they are not a prerequisite for lethal removal,' the Idaho Gray Wolf Management Plan 2023-2028 states. 'Regardless of use or success of nonlethal methods, landowners may request a special kill permit from IDFG for use on lawfully permitted public and private lands. IDFG will continue to employ lethal removal as needed to address both individual depredations and overall population goals' Longtime wolf advocates say the government-sponsored killing of wolves and expansions in hunting and trapping is reducing the number of wolves. Now, 30 years after the first wolves were returned to Idaho and 14 years after they came off the Endangered Species List, several prominent members of the team that brought wolves back worry about the threats wolves face today. Niemeyer is a longtime government trapper who has tracked wolves across Idaho and Montana since before reintroduction in 1995. Intimately familiar with wolves, he was a member of the team that traveled to Canada 30 years ago to capture wolves to reintroduce them to Idaho and Montana. For years after reintroduction, Carter studied the packs and knew the location of many dens in central Idaho. Niemeyer was so confident in his ability to find wolves that he regularly guided donors who supported conservation organizations into the wild to see wolves. He knew the landscape well enough he could set up camp just close enough for the donors to see and howl for wolves as Niemeyer cooked cowboy-style dinners for the group. But those days are over. Over the last few years, Niemeyer said he and his longtime contacts are no longer seeing wolves in the wild the same places they always used to. 'When they're in there, they see virtually little or no sign of any wolf existence in the Frank,' Niemeyer said, referring to the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. 'If you put together what I'm seeing, or better yet, what I'm not seeing…. Nobody's finding any wolf evidence. So where are these 1,300 or 1,500 wolves?' Niemeyer's luck isn't any better than his friends. During a Howl reporting trip in July 2024, Niemeyer found wolf scat and wolf tracks, but no wolves. And during another, separate expedition in 2024, he said he struck out entirely – he didn't even see a wolf track. 'The Big Buck Pack, Steel Mountain Pack, Jackson Pack, Archie Pack, I can name all these packs up there, Thorn Creek – there's no packs in those places anymore, mostly because of domestic sheep that came in there and Wildlife Services just went to hammering wolves,' Niemeyer said. 'And then you've got the recreational hunting and trapping that started when (wolves) were delisted.' 'You'll still find a wolf track up in that country,' Niemeyer said. 'But to say there's anything like the numbers there were, I don't believe it. You wouldn't convince me.' Carter worries about new expanded wolf hunting, trapping and lethal control policies in the state of Idaho. 'The state of Idaho is going to – if they haven't already – plunge wolves back towards extinction, at least in Idaho,' Carter said. 'How do you manage if you don't know how many you have?' Carter added. She isn't alone in worrying about the state management of wolves and the removal of limits on hunting and trapping. 'Is it a violation of our treaty?' Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee Chairman Shannon Wheeler said. 'Is it a violation of something that we were meant to protect? Of course it is. Of course it's a violation of what was here in 1855 and before then. And that's a part of tamáalwit, or the unwritten law, which we know that Article Three and the Treaty of 1855 with the Nez Perce represents.' Some members of the wolf reintroduction teams say attitudes are even worse today than they were 30 years ago. 'Our country's worse now than it was in terms of polarization, so those extreme divisions have only widened and become more cemented,' said Stone, executive director of the International Wildlife Coexistence Network and a co-founder of the Wood River Wolf Project. ' Back then, if I had told anyone from the opposition that didn't want to have wolves back that they would be trapping and killing wolves 365 days of the year, using bounties to kill even pups in the den, they would have told me I was crazy and that would never happen – never happen. And we're living it today. That is the reality on the ground today.' Stone isn't alone. 'Oh, I'm pretty worried,' said Doug Smith, who headed up the wolf program at Yellowstone National Park for nearly 30 years until he retired in 2022. 'Attitudes haven't changed,' Smith said. 'The fact is, they're worse now. I've been studying wolves for over 40 years, and wolves have always been controversial. There's always been people who like wolves and people who hate wolves. Now it's like people are willing to do anything to get rid of wolves or anything to protect wolves, and they don't want to talk to each other. I don't think that's progress, and right now the anti-wolf forces are winning in Idaho and Montana especially.' Journalists Clark Corbin and Heath Druzin reported and wrote Howl over the course of 14 months, trekking deep into the backcountry in some of the most remote places in the Lower 48 chasing the story of America's wildest and most controversial wildlife comeback story – wolf reintroduction. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State revenues now $141 million below Idaho Legislature's projections
The state flags hangs from the rotunda of the Idaho State Capitol Building in Boise on Jan. 7, 2025. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) Idaho state revenues fell short of expectations in May and now run $141.5 million below the projection set by the Idaho Legislature earlier this year, according to a new monthly revenue report released Thursday by the state. CONTACT US A month ago, state revenues lagged the Idaho Legislature's projection by $97.7 million, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. Now, revenues are running $141.5 million below the Idaho Legislature's forecast with less than one month remaining in the fiscal year, according to the May Budget and Revenue Monitor report. Idaho is still projected to finish the 2025 fiscal year on June 30 with a positive ending balance of $278.2 million, according to the May report. However, that projected ending balance has shrunk from the approximately $420 million ending balance that the Idaho Legislature planned on when the 2025 legislative session adjourned April 4. The revenue forecasts and collections are important because the Idaho Legislature built them into the state budget. Idaho runs on a fiscal year calendar that begins July 1 and ends June 30 every year. That means fiscal year 2025 is about to end, and fiscal year 2026 is about to begin. Rep. Wendy Horman, an Idaho Falls Republican who serves as co-chair of the Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, said the new revenue report shows positive strength in Idaho's economy despite the missed forecast. The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, is a powerful legislative committee that sets the budget for every state agency and department. Compared to last year, revenue collections are up by $145.3 million, or 2.9%, according to the May report. 'I think this gives us good news about Idaho's economy,' Horman said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon. 'Sometimes when you look at numbers against a forecast, it tells us more about the forecast than the revenue.' The revenue report shows the sales tax distributions were less than last year and a driving factor in the revenue shortfall. Other revenue sources, including individual income tax collections, corporate income tax and miscellaneous revenues, were all up. Lori Wolff, administrator of the Idaho Division of Financial Management, also expressed confidence in Idaho's economy after the revenue report was released Thursday. 'Gov. Little and the Legislature have consistently prioritized responsible budgeting, which has led to Idaho's tremendous economic success,' Wolff said in a written statement. 'We are still seeing year over year growth in revenue, signaling a strong Idaho economy. We have made investments in critical priorities while leaving a $400 million cushion on the bottom line to hedge against revenue softening. Idaho also has 22% of General Fund revenues in rainy day funds, greater than almost every other state. While we continue to watch revenue closely, we feel good about the strength of the state budget and our economy.' Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, said her heart sank when she read the new revenue report. She said the state will still have enough money to pay for programs in the current year's budget, but she worries cuts are forthcoming next year. 'I am deeply concerned that all of the tax cuts and the underestimating of revenue will create an on-ramp for my legislative colleagues to easily and unfortunately cut valuable programs and services that Idahoans need,' Wintrow said in a phone interview Thursday. 'That is really what I have been dreading this whole time.' During the 2025 legislative session, the Idaho Legislature cut taxes by $400 million and provided an additional $50 million to create a new refundable tax credit for education expenses, including tuition at private, religious schools. Those actions reduced the amount of state revenue that the state has to spend in its budget by $453 million. The role of revenue in the budget is extremely important. The Idaho Constitution requires the state to pass a balanced budget each year where expenses don't exceed revenues. Horman said the newest revenue numbers still demonstrate the Idaho Legislature took a responsible approach to budgeting this year. 'It makes me especially glad we more than doubled the amount we typically leave on the bottom line when we adjourned sine die because it's giving us a cushion to adjust to the decline in sales tax revenue,' Horman said, using the Latin term sine die that legislators use when they adjourn the legislative session for the year. Horman said it will be important to monitor all revenue sources between now and when the Idaho Legislature convenes the 2026 session in January. She also said it would be a concern if revenues continued to to fall below the forecast in the coming months and into the forthcoming 2026 fiscal year. 'Looking at the trends with sales tax tells us we made the right decision to have conservative budgeting this year, and we will need to monitor all revenue sources between now and January,' Horman said. 'I do anticipate another year of probably even more conservative budgeting (next year) than we saw this year.' Horman said the Idaho Legislature has invested $7 billion in infrastructure projects like roads, school facilities, water projects, the permanent building fund and more over the past five years. She said the $1.05 to $1.55 per hour pay increases for state employees approved this year represent the largest salary increase in terms of dollars in state history. But Horman said next year's budget may be more lean in terms of spending. 'We will need to be cautious about investments we make in the maintenance budgets as well as the budget enhancements moving forward,' Horman said, referencing the new budget procedures where JFAC splits agency budgets into two parts. Wintrow said she's worried. 'I don't see my colleagues going back on their tax cuts to increase revenue, and my heart sinks wondering about the effects, which are dramatic and potentially harmful,' Wintrow said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
River of No Return: How the Nez Perce Tribe stepped in to save wolf reintroduction in Idaho
After they were captured in Canada, the wolves released in Yellowstone National Park initially stayed in acclimation pens, like this wolf pictured in Crystal Creek on Jan. 26, 1996. (Photo courtesy of Jim Peaco/Yellowstone National Park) EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second installment of Howl, a five-part written series and podcast season produced in partnership between the Idaho Capital Sun, States Newsroom and Boise State Public Radio. Read the first installment by clicking here. NEZ PERCE RESERVATION, IDAHO – Long before the American government removed them both from their ancestral homelands, wolves and Native Americans coexisted side-by-side for centuries. Those connections run deep for Shannon Wheeler, the chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee. Wheeler remembers growing up as a boy, hearing elder members of the Nez Perce Tribe tell stories about wolves. One story involves a young boy talking with his grandfather. 'They were talking and the grandfather told him that each of us have a wolf inside of us. We actually have two wolves inside of us. One's a good wolf, and one's a bad wolf. And they're constantly fighting one another. And the grandson asked him, 'Well, Grandpa, which wolf wins?' And he says, 'Whichever one you feed the most will win,'' Wheeler said. The story of the two wolves is one that Wheeler carries with him to this day. 'We're able to utilize that lesson and our teachings to our younger ones coming up as we continue to try to grow our people and to fit into part of a world that is outside of who we are and outside of our culture and so we need those strengths,' Wheeler said. 'We need to know that we're feeding the good wolf inside of us so that we are that strong.' In addition to the stories, some members of the Nez Perce Tribe develop even deeper spiritual connections with wolves. 'What I can tell you from my position as the Tribal chairman is the wolf has always played a significant part in who we are as people, based on even the names of our people,' Wheeler said. 'Many of our people have gone out for wéyekins … A wéyekin is something where you go and fast and you get your animal spirit, and it'll come to you. And sometimes it's a himíin, it's a wolf. Himíin is the name for us for wolf.' Nearly 70 years after the U.S. government drove the wolf population to near extinction in the U.S. Rocky Mountains, that spiritual connection is what led tribal members to work to bring the himíin back to Idaho, Yellowstone National Park and the West. This is the story of how the Nez Perce pulled off a task no one else wanted – and why they're still fighting for wolves today. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX For thousands of years the Nez Perce Tribe has lived, hunted, fished and traded in what are now parts of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Wyoming. Over time, members of the Nez Perce Tribe developed a deep connection to the land and animals, said Allen Pinkham, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe who was born in 1938. 'To us, we are given the opportunity by the Creator to occupy this land that we're at right now, and then we're supposed to take care of the land and all the species that we utilize because it's a life source,' Pinkham said. 'It's an opportunity to believe and have faith in your Creator. That's what we do, and we're supposed to take care of everything else, because it provides and sustains life for ourselves.' Today, the Nez Perce is a federally recognized tribe that has about 3,500 members and governs the Nez Perce Reservation that is located in north-central Idaho. The Tribe's headquarters is located in the town of Lapwai, Idaho, and the reservation sits on a fraction of the Nez Perces ancestral territory. Lapwai is a working-class town nestled in a valley and the reservation is a mix of grassland, forested mountains and rural communities anchored by the Clearwater River. An 1855 treaty between the Nez Perce Tribe and the U.S. government set aside about 7.5 million acres of land for the tribe. But after gold was discovered on the reservation, additional treaties shrunk its size to less than a tenth of what it was. It's now about 770,000 acres Thanks to bounties, trapping and widespread poisoning, by the 1930s the U.S. federal government all but killed off wolves that used to roam the U.S. Rocky Mountains from the Canadian border to Mexico. But in the 1990s the U.S. government undertook one of the most controversial wildlife programs in history – capturing wild wolves in Canada and reintroducing them in Idaho and Yellowstone National Jan. 14, 1995 – in the aftermath of a major snowstorm, Suzanne Asha Stone was part of a convoy of vehicles that made a white-knuckle drive across icy roads to release four wolves at Corn Creek at the edge of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Central Idaho. At the time, Stone was an intern on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's wolf capture and reintroduction team. Conditions were so sketchy that some members of the team unbuckled their seatbelts as they worried about plunging into the freezing Salmon River below, Stone said. 'If you slid off the road into the river, you wouldn't have had time to disconnect your seat belt,' Stone said. 'It was kind of like the decision of what's the worst that could happen, and preparing for that.' Carter's Hope: After U.S. government killed off Western wolves, a bold experiment brought them back The wolves, which had been flown from Canada, were placed in kennels and driven in the back of U.S. Forest Service pickups to the Frank Church Wilderness. When they arrived at Corn Creek, the wolf team opened the kennel doors and immediately released the wolves into the wild. Those first four wolves reintroduced in Idaho had only been running wild for three days when the Idaho Legislature nearly derailed the entire operation. On Jan. 17, 1995, the Idaho Legislature rejected the Wolf Recovery and Management Plan developed by the Legislative Wolf Oversight Committee. The move blocked the state from leading wolf recovery in Idaho. And it left the federal government without a local partner to monitor and oversee the first wolf population to call Idaho home in more than half of a century. What happened next is a largely untold story of how the Nez Perce Tribe stepped in to save wolf reintroduction in Idaho. Even now, 30 years later, many people in Idaho don't know the role the Tribe played. Even as the Idaho Legislature said no to wolves, the Nez Perce Tribe was demonstrating its connection to wolves and investment in wolf reintroduction. Just before wolves were reintroduced to Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in January 1995, the late Horace Axtell, who was the spiritual leader of the traditional Nez Perce Seven-Drum religion, and Tribal member Allen Pinkham traveled to Missoula, Montana. Axtell and Pinkham came to offer blessings for the wolves that had been captured in Canada and were being kept in kennels at an airport hangar before their release. They met the wolves just before they were transported over the final leg of their journey for reintroduction. During the ceremony, Axtell welcomed the wolves back home to Montana, Idaho and Yellowstone. 'And so he sang a song for the wolves,' Pinkham said. About that time, the late Nez Perce leader Levi Holt traveled to Boise to meet with policymakers, said his nephew, James Holt. Levi Holt delivered a speech at the Idaho State Capitol pushing to have the Nez Perce Tribe take responsibility for the new wolf program in Idaho, James Holt said. 'My uncle Levi, being very active at that time, made that impassioned speech before decision makers to actually push them to have the Tribe be the managing partner for that reintroduction effort,' James Holt said. It worked. Because of the Tribe's connection to wolves and history of coexistence, the Nez Perce Tribe was ready to take over wolf reintroduction and conservation after the Idaho Legislature said no. 'The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was looking for a partner, and we became that partner,' said Aaron Miles Sr., who has worked as natural resources manager for the Nez Perce Tribe since 1999. Miles was still finishing his forestry degree at University of Idaho when the Nez Perce took over the program in Idaho. He took pride in seeing the Tribe taking a lead role in protecting a species that had shared a homeland with his ancestors. But Miles also heard plenty of stereotypes and lots of misinformation about the Tribe – even among college students he was helping tutor. 'I'd hear all the chatter about, well, can the Tribe do this? How can they do that?' Miles said. 'They're all these questions, and sometimes it was racist. It wasn't just the fact that they were asking an honest question. But it had to be like, 'OK, these Indians, this or that,' and here I am helping some of these guys with their homework, and that really upset me.' Biologist Marcie Carter is a member of the Nez Perce Tribe who served on the Tribe's wolf project starting in June 1997. Carter got her start while she was still a student at Lewis-Clark State College and helped put together the first wolf management plan. 'Our goal was to go into the field, find paired up wolves that potentially had pups, and document the reproduction of those wolves, and also count how many pups were out there,' Carter said. 'That summer I don't even recall how many, we probably had maybe five or six pairs of wolves that had puppies that year,' Carter said. 'So they started out very well.' Carter and another biologist spent their summer hiking around Central Idaho in places like Stanley and the Bear Valley area near the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, looking for wolves. The wolves had been fitted with radio collars that allowed the wolf project team to track their location. Typically a pilot and another team member would fly overhead, locate the wolves from the air and then use a radio to relay the animals' location to the biologists on the ground. At that point, the biologists would hike in and locate the wolves. 'We worked 10 days in a row, and then we'd take four days off,' Carter said. 'And we camped out, we backpacked and lived in a tent and slept on our Therm-A-Rest and ate packaged noodles. And every day for those 10 days, that's what we were doing. We were up, out and looking for any type of sign of wolves.' Although she grew up in Idaho and had spent time in the woods, Carter hadn't really ventured into the wilderness until she joined the Nez Perce's wolf project team. Before setting out, she had to borrow a backpack, sleeping bag, tent and cook stove. A typical assignment during her first summer in 1997 involved flying into Central Idaho's remote Chamberlain Basin with a team of other biologists. Located within the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, the Chamberlain Basin was the site where one of the first wolf packs in Idaho established territory following the reintroduction of wolves. That pack became known as the Chamberlain Basin Pack. 'That was basically our lives during that time,' Carter said. 'It was just backpacking, walking, hiking, listening. It was a great time.' The reason they spent so much time in wolf country is because that is the best way to get an idea of how the wolves are doing and what they are up to. Carter and the team conducted howl surveys. With hands cupped over mouths, researchers threw their heads back and let out their best imitation wolf howls. They hoped to get live wolves to howl in response, which helped them track the wolves' location. 'Howl' is the largest investment in time and resources we've put toward one project at the Idaho Capital Sun. If you find value in what we do, you can support work like this with a one-time or recurring donation at To read the weekly installments of 'Howl,' released every Wednesday morning, sign up for our free email newsletter, To join us for our free live panel discussion 'Wolves in the West — 30 Years of Reintroduction and the New Threats Wolves Face Today' on June 17 at the Special Event Center in Boise State University's Student Union Building, register online. As the team hiked and drove across wolf country, they scoured the ground for wolf tracks and droppings that researchers call scat. They analyzed data from wolves fitted with radio collars. They documented the newborn pups. And they counted the wolves that were killed. Once a year the team packed all that data into a report documenting Idaho's wolf population. 'It was all very positive and very, very jaw-dropping type work,' Carter said. Although the wolf project started as a cool summer job for her, it became more than that. Carter soon began asking one of her grandfathers about wolves. Boise State Public Radio, Idaho Capital Sun partner for June 17 wolf reintroduction panel discussion They talked about how himíin, the Nimíipuu language word for wolf, comes from the word for mouth. That's because wolves talk to each other, Carter said, with their howls. When older members of the Nez Perce Tribe began to find out about the wolf project, they asked Carter about her work and shared stories about the Tribe's history. When they talked about losing wolves from the landscape, sometimes the older Nez Perce members talked to Carter about other losses the Tribe experienced. 'It was a learning experience for me, not just in the field, but culturally,' Carter said. 'It's just that it goes back to the loss of the connection that all Tribal people went through, with being moved to the reservation, being forced to stop speaking our language,' Carter said. 'It did kind of raise that awareness – also for other Tribal people – that loss that we had experienced and continue to experience,' Carter said. 'And then that reconnection – it happened with wolves. It's happening with salmon. Maybe someday it'll happen with grizzly bears.' Over six years on the wolf project, Carter documented growth and stabilization in Idaho's wolf population. And as she observed wolves in their natural habitat, Carter saw a very different side to the animals that people warned her about. 'I saw these families of wolves taking care of each other and playing, and they are not this evil that people think,' Carter said. During Carter's time monitoring wolves, the population increased significantly. Compared to the original 15 wolves released in Idaho's Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in 1995, the Nez Perce Tribe reported a minimum of 192 wolves in the central Idaho recovery area in the fall of 2000. At the end of 2005 – a decade after wolves were reintroduced to Idaho – the Nez Perce team and Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologists had identified 59 resident wolf packs in Idaho. Biologists observed a minimum of 370 wolves in 2005, and estimated the state's wolf population to be 512 in 2005. By 2005, wolf territory in Idaho stretched from near the Canadian border, south to Interstate 84 and east from the Oregon border to the Montana and Wyoming borders, the wolf team noted in its annual report. During 2005, Wildlife Services officials said 26 cattle, 218 sheep and nine dogs were reported as 'confirmed' or 'probable' wolf kills. As the number of wolves and wolf kills increased, so did the calls to remove the wolf from the Endangered Species List and turn management of wolves over to the states. Under the Endangered Species Act, animals that are listed in danger of extinction are given protections – like the protection of critical habitat and prohibitions on hunting – and recovery plans. For species protected by the Endangered Species Act, the animals' recovery and stabilization is the priority. Animal species that have been saved by Endangered Special Act protections include the bald eagle, the California condor, the whooping crane and grizzly bear, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Once species are removed from Endangered Species Act protections, regulations can be eased and states can approve hunting rules or other management and lethal population control methods. In January 2006, then-Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Interior transferring day-to-day management of wolves to the state of Idaho. After about a decade, the Nez Perce Tribes' role leading wolf recovery in Idaho had come to an end. 'I think we would have kept it, but the funding was going away, and so we did not have the money to keep a program going,' Carter said. 'And so I think the only way was basically to hand it over to the state.' By 2007, the state of Idaho was officially planning for its first wolf hunts since reintroduction in 1995. At that same time, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife put forward plans to remove the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List. A series of legal battles ensued, where wolves were removed and then returned to the Endangered Species List. In January 2009, Samuel N. Penney, the then-chairman of Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, wrote a letter expressing the Tribe's full support for removing wolves from Endangered Species Act protections in Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, northern Utah and eastern Washington. Penney told then-Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar that wolves met recovery goals for the Northern Rocky Mountain region in 2002. By 2008, Idaho's wolf population was estimated at over 800 wolves in 88 packs, Penney wrote. 'The Tribe wants, and understands that citizens of United States also want, wolves to be conserved,' Penney wrote. 'The Tribe is confident that you understand the importance we place on being able to make decisions locally about how to wisely manage this resource in combination with all our other wildlife resources.' Ultimately, wolves were removed from Endangered Species Act protections in 2011 after Congress inserted language into the federal budget requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove wolves in Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and north-central Utah from the Endangered Species List. By May 2011, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game had taken over management of wolves in Idaho, and put wolf hunting tags up for sale. Then in 2021, the Idaho Legislature expanded wolf hunting and trapping by removing the limit on the number of wolf tags hunters can buy, allowing trapping on private land year round and allowing the state to enter into contracts with third parties to kill wolves. The state of Idaho had officially set out to reduce the wolf population by killing the predators. Now Marcie Carter and other wolf advocates worry the government is starting to go down the same road it did 100 years ago when wolves were eradicated from the U.S. Rocky Mountains. 'We did all this great work, and we spent hours and hours out in the woods and then to come to this point where they're treated like vermin, it's really disorienting,' Carter said. 'It's definitely being undone,' Carter added. 'It's been being undone since we stepped out. It's very expensive to recover wolves and it's not very expensive to take them off the landscape.' Journalists Clark Corbin and Heath Druzin reported and wrote Howl over the course of 14 months, trekking deep into the backcountry in some of the most remote places in the Lower 48 chasing the story of America's wildest and most controversial wildlife comeback story – wolf reintroduction. New installments of the written series will be published in the Idaho Capital Sun each Wednesday through July 2. The Howl podcast is available free everywhere that podcasts are available. Upcoming Howl schedule: Wednesday, June 18: Fixing Yellowstone: How an intact ecosystem set the stage for a wolf queen's long reign. Despite being orphaned and repeatedly challenged for alpha status and ultimately being killed by a rival pack, Wolf 907 leaves a long legacy. Wednesday, June 25: Cattle Battle: How wolves and livestock collide – and how one Idaho project offers solutions. Western ranchers say their livelihood is at stake after wolves were reintroduced into the Lower 48 30 years ago. Wednesday, July 2: Ghost Wolves: While wolves might represent nature's greatest and most controversial comeback, some longtime wolf advocates say they aren't seeing wolves in the same places they always used to after the Idaho Legislature expanded wolf hunting and trapping in the state. Some scientists have openly questioned how the state of Idaho tracks and counts wolves, and some original members of the wolf reintroduction team worry 30 years of hard work to bring wolves back could be undone. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
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10-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
In this rural Idaho county, paramedics are being trained to help with mental health crises
Just an hour after taking her first call as part of a new community paramedic program, Ashley Lynn reflects on the gaps it can fill in rural Washington County. (Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun) WEISER — In late May, Ashley Lynn responded to her first call. She drove over to the local sheriff's office, helped a man call 988 — the Idaho crisis and suicide hotline — and stayed with him until more help arrived. A paramedic for 20 years, Lynn is leading a new program in rural Washington County that's meant to help steer people experiencing mental health issues or searching for help for others toward the best resources. And, hopefully, free up resources for ambulances and law enforcement. 'The two worst places for someone in crisis to go is the hospital and jail,' Lynn said, repeating what she'd heard in crisis intervention training. 'Currently, that's our only option.' Southwest District Health launched the Washington County community paramedic program this year — calling it the first of its kind. While it's in its early stages and might evolve, some other rural Idaho counties are already wondering how they can do something similar. 'My vision for this program is to be able to bypass those destinations' — jail and the hospital — and 'get someone right into whatever service is going to best serve their needs,' Lynn told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview. So, 'they're not accruing emergency room or ambulance bills. They're not occupying a seat unnecessarily in the jail, and they're actually getting help and maybe changing the trajectory to where they can get better.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Idaho has a shortage of emergency medical services, or EMS, which is a largely volunteer workforce and isn't required to be funded by the state, Idaho Reports reported. For the past two decades, Weiser Ambulance District has worked with the same operational budget, Lynn said. Only one ambulance there is staffed with a paramedic daily. There is a backup crew, she said, but 'we don't have extra resources to go out and sit with someone who's experiencing a crisis.' 'Washington County has a really small, although very professional and amazing, team of EMS folks,' said Wendy Young, who manages the federal grant funding the community paramedic program as a project coordinator at Southwest District Health. 'So when somebody is out on one call, that means the next person that's calling, the next person that's in crisis — whether it's a health care or a behavioral health crisis — they might not get the response time that they would appreciate,' she added. If you, or someone you care about, need help with thoughts about suicide or self harm, or emotional distress, mental health or substance abuse issues, trauma or abuse, you can contact the Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline at 988. The 988 number is available by text and call — 24/7, every day of the year. Online chats are also available at The hotline can also dispatch a mobile response team of behavioral health professionals for in-person support. Teams are available from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mountain time, but will be expanded to 24/7 service on July 1, the Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline's website says. For now, the Washington County program is referral-based. Lynn's first call came from a local domestic violence-focused group. But as a paramedic, Lynn can pivot to people's needs on calls. She started by doing a basic medical screening and making sure the person was safe, she said. Then she called the crisis hotline, 988, and stayed until the mobile crisis team arrived. For calls, Lynn uses an unmarked, 'everyday looking' old county vehicle — not a full ambulance. 'Not every situation ends in transport or needing to go somewhere. But if we're able to stay with that person, deescalate the situation and hopefully resolve what's going on to some degree, and keep them where they're comfortable and safe,' she said. But paramedics on the behavioral health program crew aren't bound by the same time constraints as typical paramedics, who might need to head to another emergency call, she said. 'If we need to sit with someone for an hour, that's what we're able to do,' Lynn said. In EMS, burnout is high. But Lynn also hopes the program can show paramedics other career paths. 'My hope is that I can show that paramedics can do more than just cruise around in an ambulance and show up to bad calls and do paramedic things — that we have a lot to offer the health community,' she said. The program is funded by a five-year grant from the federal government agency called the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said Young, with Southwest District Health. The grant funds 'need to be used to divert people away from 911 or higher levels of care such as emergency rooms when such diversion is appropriate,' she said. The grant is in its second year, with the first year largely spent on administrative tasks to set up the program. In other areas with community paramedic programs, local organizations, law enforcement and even hospitals sometimes pitch in funds. About an hour away in Ada County, the community paramedic program helps law enforcement, EMS and firefighters with calls. Last year, the program responded to nearly 1,200 calls for mental health crises, substance use or other needs, Ada County Paramedics Public Information Officer Ryan Larrondo told the Sun in an email. That work included steering people toward the community crisis center, inpatient psychiatric facilities and referrals to other resources. CONTACT US But the program also helps with patients' non-emergency needs, receiving nearly 200 referrals from local first responders last year for people who need health resources that aren't mental health related, he added. In Nampa, the police department is starting a program to send a social worker out to calls with a police officer — similar to programs in local law enforcement agencies in Ada County, like at the Boise Police Department. The hope is to reduce mental health holds and avoid arrests, said Nampa Police Department Deputy Chief Curt Shankel. 'Becuase that's really a no-win, right? They're not getting the help they need there long term,' he told the Sun in a phone interview. 'So we want to be able to divert that. And hopefully be in a place where we aren't getting law enforcement called as much to the same individuals, or getting to the point where we end up having to make an arrest.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
