The entire Colorado congressional delegationseven Democrats and two Republicans — met Wednesday and drafted a letter asking for federal help in combating the bark-beetle epidemic that has destroyed more than 2 million acres of lodgepole pine in the state.
The letter asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Energy Secretary Steven Chu to “take decisive actions within your authorities to avert potential disaster” and urged them to:
• Immediately assess the hazards posed.
• Meet with affected municipal and county governments and stakeholders to assess the threats posed to citizens, public infrastructure and water.
• Develop budget proposals to effectively mitigate the hazards posed.
• Develop priority action plans to expedite the hazard-mitigation projects.
• Report the assessment, proposed budgets and proposed action plans to the governor of Colorado and the Colorado congressional delegation.
• Begin implementation of the priority plans in the current fiscal year.
