Idaho Department of Fish & Game seeks volunteers for wildfire recovery efforts

BOISE, ID (CBS2) — The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is calling for volunteers to assist in replanting efforts following a busy wildfire season that saw over 60 fires across the state. Notable among these were the Paddock Fire, which burned over 187,000 acres, and the Valley Fire, which scorched nearly 10,000 acres in the Boise Foothills.

Michael Young, a regional wildlife habitat biologist, emphasized the importance of volunteer efforts in restoring the burnt landscape. “All the landscape behind us where the shrubs are burnt — most of those aren’t going to come back on their own very well,” said Young. “We have several ways to manage that at Fish and Game — we’ve got aerial seeding, herbicide treatment — but we’re going to put a lot of shrubs into the ground by hand and that’s going to be with volunteers.”