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  Home Page » News » Udall Introduces Fireprevention Bill

Udall introduces fire-prevention bill

Measure directs concentration on areas with beetle-killed pines

by Joe Hanel
Herald Denver Bureau U.S. Sen. Mark Udall wants to force the Forest Service to give top priority to preventing fires in the aftermath of beetle outbreaks.

However, a bill Udall, D-Colo., introduced last week in the Senate has no additional money for the Forest Service.

“We face threats to our lives and livelihoods, and this is a way to reduce those risks in a common-sense way with resources we already have," Udall said in a Monday conference call.

More than 1.5 million acres of Colorado lodgepole pines have died in the bark-beetle outbreak, and a spruce-beetle infestation in Southwest Colorado is increasing in severity.

Udall's bill would direct the Forest Service to concentrate its efforts on beetle-ravaged areas. A preliminary map provided by Udall's office identifies Archuleta, San Juan, San Miguel, Hinsdale and Mineral as counties that have beetle-killed trees on more than a tenth of their land.

In those areas, Udall's bill would require the Forest Service to prioritize the removal of dead trees and to cooperate with the state forest service to treat forests on private land.

The bill also would make permanent the Forest Service's Stewardship Contracting program, which allows long-term contracts with loggers to guarantee them a steady stream of trees. The bill also qualifies trees removed from beetle zones to be used in federally backed efforts to convert biomass into motor fuel. That would give an economic incentive for companies to remove dead trees, Udall said.

“You can only make so many fence posts and so many pencils and so many bark-beetle belt buckles," he said.

Colorado's congressional delegation has tried to pass beetle bills in past years, but it never succeeded. Udall's latest bill would apply to all Western states.

Ryan Demmy Bidwell of Colorado Wild said he likes this year's version more than previous ones, because it does not waive environmental reviews and public involvement in logging projects. In general, Bidwell said, Durango-based Colorado Wild supports most parts of the bill. But, he worries that it might force the Forest Service to ignore other pressing fire-prevention needs just because they do not involve bark beetles.

“We should not be spending all of our resources in responding to the bark beetles," Bidwell said.

The bill, S. 2798, has been assigned to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

jhanel@durangoherald.com'>jhanel@durangoherald.com