Friday, December 02, 2011

Forest Service says budget cuts forcing limits on bark beetle response

The U.S. Forest Service says budget cuts are forcing the federal government to limit its response to a bark beetle outbreak that has destroyed millions of acres of forests in the West, and scientists are trying to figure out what the forests will look like after the epidemic has run its course. U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, who requested a yearlong study of the epidemic's impact on Colorado and Wyoming, said Thursday he plans to introduce new legislation in Congress next year to help federal agencies deal with the devastation. Potential changes include emergency authority for the U.S. Forest Service to clear dead trees for a reasonable cost, reauthorization of the Good Neighbor Authority that allows the Colorado State Forest Service to work with the U.S. Forest Service on projects that cross federal-state boundaries, and permanent reauthorization of laws allowing the Forest Service to trade goods for services. "As the mountain pine beetle epidemic continues to spread across our western forests, it's clear that we need to address the problem more intensely and effectively," Udall said...more

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Form a committee, call in the enviros, form another committee, sue the government for forming a committee so the enviro lawyers have some spending money, let all fires burn which will get rid of the beetle killed trees, then blame Smokey Bear for the mess (along with Bush).

Anonymous said...

These people claiming poor in the mouth in this article are full of crap! This so called "bark beetle epidemic" has been ongoing for over 10 years. This is bald faced political scare/lie tactics aimed at convincing the public more money is needed for an ineffectual agency! INCREDIBLE!!! This is a classic bs article trying to scare an electrolate and congress into throwing money at a problem the FS cannot and willnot solve but, it will continue to grow a bloated government!