KTIV NewsChannel 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and SportsSenators want more money to fight pine beetles
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Associated Press - December 1, 2009 6:15 AM ET
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota's U.S. senators have asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to commit more money to fight an infestation of pine beetles.
The request was in a letter signed by Sens. John Thune, Tim Johnson and six other senators from Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska.
The letter says the infestation now affects 2.5 million acres of national forest land in the intermountain West. The senators want $49 million dedicated to the effort in addition to the annual Region Two U.S. Forest Service budget.
In the Black Hills, the first major outbreak occurred in 1997 in the Sturgis area. Pine beetles have since spread to the central Hills, consuming a large portion of the Black Elk Wilderness, the area near Harney Peak and surrounding territory.
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