Udall, Bennet Lead Bipartisan Request for $49 M in Emergency Funding to Address Bark Beetle Epidemic

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet announced that they are leading a bipartisan group of Western Senators in urging the U.S. Forest Service to treat the bark beetle epidemic ravaging the forests of Colorado and other states as a national emergency. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the Senators ask him to re-dedicate an additional $49 million in existing funds to clear dead trees and perform other work to reduce the threat posed by the bark beetle in USFS Region 2 (which includes Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska).

The Senators' request comes on the heels of major fires on Colorado's Front Range and as another fire burns in Grand County, an area hard-hit by the bark beetle. Trees killed and weakened by the bark beetle could become tinder for wildfires, and they pose threats to recreation and water quality as well. While the Forest Service has done work to address the damage caused by the bark beetle through its existing budget, the epidemic has spread fast, and it's clear that a stream of funding is needed just to address the bark beetle, the Senators wrote in the letter.

"The bark beetle has created a national emergency, and work to protect public safety, infrastructure and human lives should be funded as such," the Senators wrote. "Therefore, we encourage the USFS to supplement Region 2 funding to adequately address this disaster, which is decimating the West."

Last year, the Senators successfully convinced Secretary Vilsack to release $40 million in existing funds to address bark beetle damage in Region 2. Of that, $30 million was re-dedicated to do work in three national forests in Colorado: White River, Medicine Bow and Routt, and Arapaho and Roosevelt. The Forest Service is now in the process of beginning that work.

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