Like a Good Neighbor: Idaho’s Good Neighbor Authority at Work

A Conversation with Jon Songster, GNA Bureau Chief for the Idaho Department of Lands

When Barry Manilow wrote the State Farm jingle in 1971 — for $500 — he probably had no idea it would be referenced on a forestry website 55 years later. But here it is, courtesy of the 2014 Farm Bill and congressionally authorized Good Neighbor Authority.

Good Neighbor Authority allows the U.S. Forest Service and Interior’s Bureau of Land Management to partner with state forestry departments, Native American tribes, and counties for forest restoration and management services on federally owned forests and grasslands.

In Idaho, Jon Songster is GNA Bureau Chief for the Idaho Department of Lands. With apologies to Manilow, he is always there, just like a good neighbor.

We have known Songster since IDL hired him to run the state’s GNA program. It is a daunting task made difficult by numerous problems, none more challenging than the lack of loggers and wood-processing infrastructure needed to do the on-the-ground work necessary to protect Idaho’s 21.5 million acres of forest from the ravages of wildfire, insects, and disease.

At 80 percent, the federal government is by far the largest forest landowner in Idaho. Private landowners follow with 14 percent, and Idaho’s endowment beneficiaries own six percent. Not much, but timber harvesting from State Endowment Trust Lands is a funding source for Idaho’s public schools.

Songster was one of several federal and state leaders who made presentations at the April 7–8 Idaho/Montana Forest Collaborative Conference here in Coeur d’Alene. We were so impressed with his PowerPoint presentation that we sought him out.

The result is this Q&A. His PowerPoint presentation is linked nearby.

The Interview

Evergreen: Jon, tell us a bit about your career.

Songster: Sure. I’m a graduate of West Virginia University and the University of Idaho with degrees in forestry and forest products. My first jobs were working in the field as a forestry technician before starting a position as a research forester with the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

Two years later, I went to work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, assisting private forest landowners. Stimson Lumber Company then hired me, and I worked on its lands in Northeast Washington, Northern Idaho, and Western Montana.

Ten years ago, IDL hired me as the GNA Program Manager, and I’ve been in Coeur d’Alene since then.

Evergreen: You are definitely well traveled in the Interior West. How are things progressing in Idaho’s GNA program?

Songster: My bosses could probably give you a better answer to your question, but from my perspective, there is no bigger or better challenge than being GNA Bureau Chief in Idaho.

The Biggest Challenge

Evergreen: What’s the biggest challenge?

Songster: There are many, but I’d put the ecological conditions we observe on forestlands in Idaho at the top of the list: insect and disease infestations and the increasing risk of wildfire at the same time logging companies and mills are struggling.

So are some of the collaborative groups that help us design projects. Everyone needs money, and money is scarce. All of these problems are connected.

Evergreen: So what’s the good news?

Songster: The good news is that Good Neighbor Authority and the Shared Stewardship Initiative allow us to get more work done on the ground in a more timely manner with less money.

Evergreen: How so?

Songster: You saw my PowerPoint at the Coeur d’Alene Resort on April 8, so you saw the best quantitative representation of the pluses and minuses that I have.

My job is to help and support Forest Service District Rangers and Supervisors, their counterparts at IDL, and Idaho counties with whom we have signed GNA agreements. It’s a learning process for all of us, and the learning curve is steep.

A Steep Learning Curve

Evergreen: Why is the learning curve so steep?

Songster: There are many related factors. Harvesting on non-industrial forestlands in Idaho is declining. These are our Tree Farmers. Their operating costs are increasing at the same time log prices are relatively flat.

The economics of forestland ownership are very difficult. These ownerships are generational. Grandparents and parents don’t want to give up, but their children and grandchildren see more problems than opportunities, so they would rather sell to land developers. Our most stable landownership pattern is fragmenting.

Our situation is made more challenging by serious competition from the Southeast’s forest products industry. There is a reason why Canadian manufacturers are investing billions in new mills in the South. Trees grow much faster there than they do here. But there is also a cultural factor. Southerners have been working timberland and farmland there for centuries.

Evergreen: That’s true. The first mills along the eastern seaboard date from the 1700s. The westward migration did not begin in earnest until Lincoln signed the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Act — Homestead in May 1862 and Railway in July 1862. The culture you reference was embedded in the South 100 years before the westward migration began.

Songster: On the cultural side, we’re currently facing two big problems in the Intermountain West — a lack of infrastructure, loggers and mills, and recruiting a new workforce.

If you walk through a mill today, you’ll see many men and women approaching retirement. It’s the same in the woods. Young people want more financial security than they see in the forest products industry. We have to fix this.

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Public Trust and Social License

Evergreen: How can we help?

Songster: You are, but I assume you are facing the same money challenges we all face.

Evergreen: Boy howdy. It’s scary!

Songster: At IDL — and certainly at the federal level — we also have to bring the public along. We have to protect our social license to cut timber when the public does not believe it is necessary or appropriate.

We’re trying, but Idaho is the fastest-growing state in the nation. Between 2020 and 2025, 190,000 new residents moved here. The in-migration is coming mostly from California, Oregon, and Washington. These are states where forest management is a contentious issue.

Education becomes a very important part of our job. It’s overwhelming for all of us, not just in Idaho but in every state in the Interior West.

Evergreen: We hear about it every day, and like everyone else, we’re in the hunt for more money so we can do our work more effectively. Your customers are also our customers: mills, logging companies, and the federal government. We often feel like we’re all walking in circles with one foot nailed to the floor.

Songster: IDL has a lot of support from Governor Little, the Land Board, the state legislature, and county commissioners, some of whom have signed GNA agreements with the Forest Service or with IDL. But — again — we are working in publicly owned forests.

Shared Stewardship in Action

Evergreen: The collaborative groups that attended the Coeur d’Alene conference all seemed to be pleased with the messages that Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz delivered in his keynote address. How does Shared Stewardship — especially GNA — fit into what the Chief envisions?

Songster: We’re all walking in the same direction on the same evolutionary path. It’s collaboration in action. Our shared goals are to protect forests, watersheds, fish and wildlife habitats, and year-round outdoor recreation opportunities from wildfires and insect and disease infestations.

All of the amenities the public loves require that we actively manage our forests.

Evergreen: We certainly have all the technological tools we need to meet this responsibility head on. Likewise, thousands of peer-reviewed scientific studies give strong support to the need to manage forests in ways that increase their health, productivity, and longevity.

Songster: I agree. Collectively, GNA and Shared Stewardship collaborators represent a tremendous public resource. The on-the-ground work we are collectively doing can be controversial, and the learning curve is steep. But that’s our job, and we intend to get our work done in a timely and efficient manner.