TITLE 38

FORESTRY, FOREST PRODUCTS AND STUMPAGE DISTRICTS

CHAPTER 1

IDAHO FORESTRY ACT

38-133.  Officers charged with enforcement. The director of the department of lands and his assistants, fire wardens, conservation officers and their deputies and all other peace officers of the state are hereby charged with the enforcement of the criminal provisions of this chapter and shall have full power and it shall be their duty to arrest with or without warrant any person found violating any of the provisions of this chapter or rules and regulations of the state board of land commissioners after notice made pursuant hereto and take him before a magistrate and make complaint, and when any such officer shall have information that such violation has been committed he shall make similar complaint.

The authority of the fire wardens respecting the control or suppression of forest fires, summoning help or making arrests for violation of this chapter or rules and regulations of the board may extend to any adjacent district or to any part of the state in times of great fire danger, providing that in case of conflict of authority resulting therefrom, the fire warden in whose district the fire is located shall have ultimate control. In emergencies fire wardens may commandeer tools, supplies and equipment and may employ able-bodied persons or compel assistance of able-bodied persons and neither the state board of land commissioners, the director, or his delegates, fire wardens or deputy fire wardens, shall be liable to civil action for trespass committed in the discharge of their duties; provided, that in performing their duties they exercise reasonable care to avoid doing unnecessary damage.

History:

[38-133, added 1972, ch. 401, sec. 2, p. 1164; am. 1974, ch. 17, sec. 8, p. 308.]