John Thune

Posted: July 3rd 2009

The Argus Leader reports:

Acres of pine trees in the Black Hills National Forest have fallen prey to the mountain pine beetle, and Sen. John Thune, R-SD, wants to halt the bug before it completely devastates West River forests.

Thune was in Rapid City Thursday to present a three-point plan to U.S. Forest Service officials and the public. The pine beetle problem, which has hit Colorado hard with more than 2 million acres infested, is encroaching into the Black Hills.

“Twenty-five percent of the forest is impacted by these things,” Thune said. “The Forest Service has been doing a lot of good things out here, even staying ahead of the infestation in some ways, but I think they’d yield better results if they had more power to do things.” ...