by Josh Poland
j.poland@krdo.com
twitter.com/joshpoland

COLORADO SPRINGS - Senator Mark Udall is calling it one of the biggest natural disasters in the west. Now Udall has introduced legislation hoping to stop the dreaded bark beetle and the deaths of millions of trees.

It is a bi-partisan effort from the Colorado democrat and Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho.

The bill would give forest managers more ways to respond to an outbreak that Udall says poses wildfire and public safety risks.

"This is a way in which to begin to reduce those risks in a common sense approach that takes advantage of resources that we already have available to us," Udall told NEWSCHANNEL 13 by telephone from Washington, D.C.

Udall says the bill is not a "money bill." It would take existing funds and authority and re-direct them towards the beetle fight.

Udall says the bill would allow forest managers to identify high-priority areas and speed-up a treatment plan for those spots.

"Those are areas defined by the forest service that have a significant amount of dead trees that therefore increase our chances for forest fires or a higher risk of falling dead trees," he says.

NEWSCHANNEL 13 put a call into the U.S. Forest Service. A spokesperson says she couldn't comment on pending legislation.

NEWSCHANNEL 13 also spoke with City of Woodland Park officials. They have a program in place to identify infested and at-risk trees. The city has taken down about 2,600 of them in the past 5 years.

They say they're interested to see what happens with Senator Udall's bill and if it could help them with their fight.

We'll continue to track this story.