Nine Aircraft Were Sent to a Seven-Acre Fire Near a Trump Official’s 480-Acre Idaho Ranch — Including After He Phoned Forest Service Offices in the Middle of the Night — and Three Senators Ask the Agriculture Secretary Who Authorized It
On July 12, 2026, roughly nine aircraft — helicopters, air tankers and tactical planes — responded to the Cabin Creek Fire, a seven-acre blaze in Idaho's Sawtooth National Forest. The effort lasted a few hours and cost nearly $115,000 in federal money. Some of those aircraft were pulled off fires elsewhere in Idaho. The fire was near the 480-acre ranch of Michael Boren, the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment — the official who oversees the U.S. Forest Service. Two agency officials told The Washington Post that Boren phoned regional and national offices repeatedly that day, including once in the middle of the night, demanding to know why more aircraft were not already in the air. On August 28, 2026, Sens. Ron Wyden, Amy Klobuchar and Martin Heinrich wrote to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins demanding a full investigation and asking what safeguards exist to keep officials from steering wildfire response toward their own property. The letter landed in the middle of a record fire season: more than two million acres have burned in Oregon alone this year, and Wyden's office says fires threatening Oregon communities drew fewer resources than the seven-acre fire near Boren's ranch.
“Mr. Boren's actions constitute potentially a misuse of taxpayer funds and put American families at further risk by diverting scarce resources from high-priority wildfires threatening communities elsewhere in the region and country.”