Tag: Pine Beetle

The Colorado Independent’s Jan. 9 article “Michael Brown, FEMA and the bark beetle: Talk about your looming disasters” identified the looming threat of a catastrophic wildfire in Colorado’s pine beetle-ravaged forests. Unfortunately, the article failed to recognize two important facts regarding the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) involvement in this important issue: 1) FEMA Region VIII, based in Denver, has been working collaboratively with local, state and federal partners to prepare for such a fire, 2) federal law prevents FEMA from using taxpayer money to simply clear beetle-ravaged forests.

Wind-whipped wildfires that chased disgraced former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Michael Brown from his Left Hand Canyon home near Boulder Wednesday carried with them the scent of even richer irony than the mainstream media stumbled all over itself to report on Thursday.

Colorado’s rice-sized mountain pine beetle got some plus-sized publicity this week in The New York Times, likely causing a collective cringe on the part of the state’s ski industry and tourism officials.

Wildfire fears have ski resorts, mountain communities desperately seeking funding for thinning projects to prevent economic catastrophe. As Colorado lawmakers grapple with the state's mounting...