Boyle prepared for 9th term as District 9 rep

MIDVALE – Judy Boyle remembers well when she became involved in politics.  

 She was five years old, and she tagged along with her grandfather to city council meetings and political gatherings across the region.

 She said her grandfather was “into being a good citizen” and felt voters should be involved in politics. 

 Fast forward decades and Boyle is preparing for another Idaho legislative session, representing Idaho’s District 9, seat B. The appeal of politics remains as strong as it was when she was a child. 

The Idaho Legislature convenes Jan. 6 in Boise.

 Boyle’s life stretches across a broad swath of political involvement, including a stint as the Natural Resources Director for former U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-Idaho) and a consistent presence at the Legislature since she was first elected to represent Idaho’s District 9, seat B, in 2008. 

 Boyle’s political views are straightforward. In her view, her constituents come first, always.  

 “I read all the bills, do my research and talk to my colleagues. Then I decide if it (a bill) will help my constituents and if it is constitutional,” said Boyle.

 Boyle isn’t shy about her devotion to state’s rights and local control. Her main goal every session, she said, is to protect “our freedoms and keep the feds in their place.”

 “That should be the overarching goal all the time,” said Boyle. 

 As a veteran politician, Boyle said she is pleased she will be a member of several key legislative committees during the 2025 session.

 This session she will be a member of the legislative committees on transportation, state affairs and natural resources. Her tenure on the transportation committee fits in with another one of her key aims for the session, she said.

 “My goal there is to get some funding to upgrade U.S. Highway 95. Especially between Fruitland and Weiser. That section has been ignored for years,” said Boyle. 

 Boyle said water issues will be another crucial subject for lawmakers in January. She also said she wants to push to get more state control over timber harvests to enhance forest management.

 Now, she said, state forests are in sad shape.

 “The state emits more carbon out of our forests than any other state because we have so many dead trees. It is outrageous,” said Boyle.

 Boyle said the original, 1897 act to create the Forest Service mandated the agency to protect watersheds and provide a steady supply of timber.

 “The Forest Service does neither,” she said.

 The 1976 National Forest Management Act modified the original Forest Service mandate and required timber sales must, in most cases, be limited to a “quantity less than or equal to an amount that can be removed annually from the forest, in perpetuity, on a sustained-yield basis.”

 She said she plans to support more active participation by the state for timber sales through the Forest Service’s Good Neighbor Authority. Under the policy, the Forest Service can ink agreements with state forestry departments for forest management. The policy, she said, makes timber sales – and, in turn, forest management – “so much faster.”

 Boyle said one of Idaho’s biggest challenges is its inability to access large sections of the state’s mineral resources.

 “There are billions of dollars of mineral supplies, rare earth minerals underneath the surface we can’t get to because of all these federal, stop, stop, stop things,” said Boyle.

 Boyle said Idaho would be “so rich if we could get to our minerals and take care of our timber and forests properly.”

 Boyle said in her decades-long political career she’s learned a number of lessons. One lesson, she said, still resonates.

 “Speak truth to power,” she said.

 Boyle said she wants her constituents to know she represents them and “not some lobby organization.”

 “I’ve been doing this a long time and I’m always trying to help people if I can,” she said.