Mark Udall: Republicans Upset Over Health Care Passage Block Bark Beetle Hearing

Colorado Senator Mark Udall accused Senate Republicans of obstructionism Tuesday after GOP members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee canceled a hearing regarding bark beetles, an intrusive species of insect that are destroying Western forests and causing damaging fires.

In a statement, Udall's office said that Republicans, angry over the passage of health care reform on Sunday night, invoked an obscure senate rule to block the hearing as part of their stated strategy of not cooperating with Democrats.

Udall's office wrote:

"Today's scheduled hearing on Senator Mark Udall's bill to protect communities from wildfire and falling trees as a result of bark beetle infestation has been canceled due to Republican obstructionism. Angry over the passage of health insurance reform legislation, Republican leaders are using an arcane rule, which requires the unanimous consent of Senators in both parties to agree to hearings scheduled after 2 p.m., and have objected to the bark beetle hearing and vowed not to cooperate with Democrats for the rest of the year."

Bark Beetles, which kill Western trees when they lay eggs in their trunks, have destroyed millions of acres of forests in the Rocky Mountain West over the last several years in what is considered to be one of the worse outbreaks in recorded history.

The large swaths of dead trees place certain parts of the West at dramatically heightened risk for damaging forest fires.

Tuesday's scheduled hearing was in regards to a bill Udall is sponsoring that would provide the Interior Department and Forest Service with resources to contain fires related to bark beetles.

Comments

[Durango]

07:26 PM on 03/24/2010

We had the most severe fire in a more than century in the San Juan Mountains of SW Colorado in 2002 (is that right?)

Had nothing to do with beetle kill.

Forest fires are a natural part of the ecology. As are beetles.

I believe both the beetles and the fires were more the result of the 20 + year drought we have been going through. Drought which stressed the trees and left them open to the beetles infections.

I doubt there is anything we can do about either the beetle ill or the fire potential. Logging large tracks of forest will result in much more harm than good. From the erosion.

Insecticides would be insane..

Some problems have no solutions. Or human solutions anyhow.

And most natural processes should be allowed to play out.

Not that the Republican's aren't SOB's. Of course they are.

[lea171]

05:36 PM on 03/24/2010

I live in Colorado and Udall is an expert at spin. Colorado will probably turn Republican in the 2010 midterm elections, and the Republicans will delay legislation until after the elections. Our forests will be fine until then. Get used to it, the Democrat agenda is to accuse Republicans of obstructiionists and Udall got the memo. Just election politics.

[Durango]

07:13 PM on 03/24/2010

But, but, but. The Republicans are obstructionists.

And no, this is not politics as usual.

You do not win elections by simply objecting to everything.

Something the Republicans are going to find out come November.

Don't start believing your own spin.

[edva]

04:58 PM on 03/24/2010

The very definition of "sore losers". The GOP temper tantrum and refusal to accept the outcome of democracy tells us all we need to know about them. Shameful.

[touchdown]

03:41 PM on 03/24/2010

The Republican Party is a joke, and it isn't funny.

[Drewcypher]

03:15 PM on 03/24/2010

So when someone dies this summer in a forest fire, let's use an "arcane rule" to charge the Senate GOP with involuntary manslaughter.

[ColoradoCool]

03:08 PM on 03/24/2010

Awwww! Cheeses! Makes me ashamed to be living in Colorado! The Repugs seem to be indulging themselves in paroxysms of pointless, reckless rage without regard to consequences. What a childish spectacle!

Why did you delete this when I submitted it a few minutes ago. Lighten up!

[ColoradoCool]

03:04 PM on 03/24/2010

Awww Cheeses! Makes me ashamed to be living in Colorado! The Repugs seem to be having paroxysms of pointless, reckless rage without regard to consequences. What a childish spectacle!

[Crocodile3629]

02:13 PM on 03/24/2010

So...

Its an 'If I go down I'm taking you with me' kind of deal?

What is wrong with the GOP? Can they not just GROW UP?

[edva]

04:59 PM on 03/24/2010

A lot of them were spoiled rich kids. And it seems like the rest want to be. Pitiful.

[whiteconch]

01:37 PM on 03/24/2010

Don't wanna support our Forest's Needs.......Then Get the hell out of Colorado,...NOW!!! GOP LOSERS!!

[Joshua Zeidner]

12:09 PM on 03/24/2010

This upsets me so much..these people need to grow up!

[Durango]

11:45 AM on 03/24/2010

Considering the beetles in question are part of the natural cycle of the forests and are more the result of the drought the West has gone through for the past couple decades or so . . .

There is probably nothing humans can do one way or another.

And the spending considered by Udall is a waste of money.

They used beetles as the excuse to clear cut major stands of timber in SW Colorado. At altitudes up to 11,000 feet.

Thousand acre clear cuts that are devoid of trees to this day. But which, the Forest Service spent millions in failed attempts at reforestation. Far more than the original timber was worth.

Sounds like more of the same to me.

[Decorina]

11:50 AM on 03/24/2010

You are exactly right. The usual money grab...nothing to see here.

[badalien]

01:33 PM on 03/24/2010

Actually living in the National Forest area up here I have to disagree. If you have seen the beetle kill, you would understand the need to take care of the issue.
Beetle kill is a direct result from cutting in many areas. When the companies/forest svc leave the branches in huge piles all over the forest (because removing them isn't profitable), it gives the beetles so many extra places to breed that they create much larger populations than would ever naturally occur. Also, the dead trees greatly increase the chance of forest fires which threaten national parks, wildlife, homes, and water safety downstream.
And before people complain how people shouldn't live in the area, be aware that almost all forest fires are started by visitors (not those of us that live here) and that the amount of loss due to forest fires is almost always less than the tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, etc that happen in the same year - in other words, every area has their dangers and comparatively, forest fires cost less in terms of lives and $ than just about any other disaster there is.
I am certainly against unnecessary cutting (I have went to bat against the forest service in my area many times), and certainly don't think the forest service always does the best thing, but to truly keep the forests healthy and safe we do need to manage them.
Maybe if you don't like his ideas you should write him and suggest some alternatives.

[Durango]

02:45 PM on 03/24/2010

How are you going to " take care of the problem?"

By clear cutting the dead timber?

By spraying the forests with insecticides?

By subsidizing logging,. Again.

Forests seemed to have managed on their own for any number of millions of years.

I have seen the results of FS "management"

What did the old timer in Dunton tell me? "The Forest Service things up stupid things to do then screws it up."

[VivamusAmemus]

10:57 AM on 03/24/2010

Well, since when have the Republicans cared about anything other than what's in their own pockets? Their motto is "I've got mine, who cares about the rest of you."

[bassboatboy]

10:27 AM on 03/24/2010

The GOP is busy lining their pockets and offering no solutions.

[VPN]

10:18 AM on 03/24/2010

Petty, vindictive, racist, pestilent and USELESS for the good of the Nation, todays Gee Oh Pee.

[lostpl8]

09:44 AM on 03/24/2010

I see the GOP doesn't care if my house now burns to the ground also!