U.S. Senator Ken Salazar

Member: Agriculture, Energy, Veterans' Affairs, Ethics and Aging Committees

 

2300 15th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510

 

 

For Immediate Release

April 5, 2006

CONTACT:    Cody Wertz – Comm. Director

                        303-455-7600

Andrew Nannis  – Press Secretary

                        202-224-5852


 Sen. Salazar Fights to Protect Colorado in Upcoming Wildfire Season
Discusses Bark Beetle Infestations at Senate Committee Hearing and in Meeting with Interior Secretary Nominee Kempthorne

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reeling from years of erratic snow pack levels and protracted drought, Colorado’s communities and forests face severe danger during this year’s wildfire season. Today, during a hearing on wildfire management before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests, United States Senator Ken Salazar called for quick action by the Forest Service to combat another major contributor to wildfire danger: a widespread bark beetle infestation that is leaving huge, dry fuel loads in its wake.

“I fear that we are facing a perfect storm of conditions for devastating fires this summer in Colorado,” said Senator Salazar. “Currently, Colorado will receive only 35,000 acres of fuels treatment. The Forest Service could protect another 70,000 acres if funding were available. And an additional 12,500 acres are ready for timber sales and forest health treatments, awaiting only funding for action.”

In addition, in a meeting this morning with the nominee for Secretary of the Interior, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID), Senator Salazar pressed the Governor on the subject of bark beetles and the Department of the Interior’s funding levels.

“The need for hazard fuels reduction and forest health treatment could not be more urgent, but the Department’s resources and funding levels are inadequate to meet this need on lands managed by DOI,” observed Senator Salazar in a letter to Gov. Kempthorne in advance of their meeting, available here.

Across Colorado’s West Slope bark beetles have turned entire swaths of forest into reddish-brown, dead stands. In 2004, bark beetles killed an estimated seven million trees over 1.5 million acres in Colorado. Beetle-kill stands are widespread across the Arapahoe, Routt and White River National Forests, and are increasingly visible in the Pike National Forest and the Gunnison National Forest and along the Front Range among houses and communities.

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