Ranch manager tied to top Trump appointee started 5,600-acre Idaho wildfire

But as officials with the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) would discover and document in a lengthy investigative report, Steve Boren started the fires — at least 20 separate ignitions — on land owned by the state of Idaho and leased to Josephine Creek Ranch Inc. for cattle grazing. (A recent federal ethics disclosure confirms that Michael Boren has an ownership stake in that company.) When he ignited the fires, Steve Boren did not have a required burn permit, which he told investigators was “a mistake,” and lit the fires during what the state investigator called “a hold on any burning due to the excessively dry fuels,” according to the department investigation.

In the end, the blaze — dubbed the Rosie Fire — consumed more than 5,600 acres of state, federal and private lands, and cost at least $950,000 to contain, according to incident reports from the National Interagency Fire Center.

Josephine Creek Ranch spans some 2,500 acres and is surrounded by large swaths of Idaho state land and federal parcels managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

Public Domain and obtained the IDL fire investigation report through a state public records request this week.