The Black Hills National Forest stands to lose $8 million if the U.S. Forest Service doesn’t fund a pine beetle project in Colorado and Wyoming.

All four U.S. senators from South Dakota and Wyoming are urging the U.S. Agriculture Department to provide an additional $49 million to battle widespread pine beetle infestations in national forests in Colorado and Wyoming.

If the money doesn’t come from the Forest Service’s budget, the Rocky Mountain Regional forester will tap money from other forests in the region, including $8 million from the Black Hills National Forest’s 2010 budget. That amounts to about a 15 percent to 20 percent reduction in the Black Hills National Forest budget for next year, according to deputy forest supervisor Dennis Jaeger.

If the money is approved from the national office, the $8 million would come back to the Black Hills, Jaeger said Monday.

The Rocky Mountain Region is mounting a major effort to cut down beetle-killed trees in the Arapahoe, Roosevelt and White River national forests in Colorado and the Medicine Bow and Routt national forests, which straddle Wyoming and Colorado. A total of 2.5 million acres have been affected in the region.

Forest Service officials worry that trees killed by beetles could fall and injure visitors, block roads or damage power lines.

“The regional forester has decided he’s got a significant health and safety issue,” Jaeger said.

Regional Forester Rick Cables of Denver has tapped forests throughout the region for a total of about $29 million for the effort, according to Mary Ann Chambers, a public affairs officer in the regional office. That amount falls short of the $48 million or more needed for the project, she said.

Cables in October requested the total needed from Forest Service headquarters in Washington.

Last week, a letter sent to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack requesting $49 million for the project was signed by Republican Sen. John Thune and Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, both Republicans of Wyoming, as well as Democrats Mark Udall and Michael Bennet of Colorado and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

The letter asks Vilsack to shift Fiscal Year 2010 appropriations and unobligated funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus package) to provide additional money for the beetle effort.

“The Rocky Mountain Region needs additional funding to address this issue before it gets worse,” Thune said. “This infestation is leaving forests vulnerable to catastrophic fire and watershed degradation, which places local communities at risk. Long term, if this situation is not addressed, the infestation could impact wildlife habitats, threaten species, reduce recreation activities and reduce water quality and quantity in this region,” he said.

The regional office put together a bark beetle incident management team a couple of years ago. It will be folded into a national incident management organization, which is due to arrive in Denver next week to take over the beetle management effort, said Chambers, a public affairs officer for the regional beetle team.

Chambers said the incident doesn’t cover the Black Hills National Forest directly, but some efforts, including information activities, will be directed across the forests in the Rocky Mountain Region.

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8415 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com.