CHEYENNE- Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Tuesday urged the federal government to provide more money and management to help Wyoming and neighboring states manage forests devastated by the growing bark beetle outbreak.

In a letter sent Tuesday to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Freudenthal said Vilsack should convene leaders from Western states to discuss addressing the epidemic, which has ravaged pine and spruce trees across the West.

The bark beetle epidemic has already decimated 1.5 million acres of pine and spruce trees in Wyoming and Colorado. By 2012, the Forest Service predicts that the mountain pine beetle will have killed nearly all the lodgepole pines in southern Wyoming and northern Colorado.

While bark beetles themselves can't be stopped from spreading, they leave behind large stands of dead trees that must be carefully managed to prevent devastating forest fires and allow new trees to grow.

Freudenthal recommended that regional "stakeholders" should consider, among other things, increasing federal funding for forest management and fire suppression, creating new planning rules that allow the National Forest Service to quickly treat infested areas, and improving collaboration among affected states to deal with the outbreak.

At a Tuesday press conference, Freudenthal also said that federal funds to manage beetle-infested - and therefore extremely fire-prone -- forests in the Rocky Mountain region should be separated from the overall National Forest Service budget.

"One of the drains now on this region is that an awful lot of the money that is appropriated ends up in California fighting forest fires," he said. "You shouldn't be taking money that was allocated to manage and improve the forests, and use it on forest fires."

USDA spokesman Justin DeJong said in an e-mail that the Forest Service is developing a new planning rule that takes into account the impact of insect outbreaks and supports a "better mechanism" to pay for fire suppression on federal lands.

"Secretary [Vilsack] looks forward to working with Governor Freudenthal and other governors in the West to restore and conserve America's forests," DeJong said in the statement.

Freudenthal wrote Vilsack in response to resolutions passed earlier this month by the Lincoln and Carbon county commissions. The nearly identical resolutions urged Freudenthal to petition federal officials and Wyoming's congressional delegation for more federal help in combating bark beetles.

"I figure, given that they love the federal government about as much as I do, that if they're concerned enough to ask for help, that it must be a fairly serious (problem)," he said.

The governor said his letter was also meant to draw attention to bark beetles, as the U.S. Senate will likely soon hold confirmation hearings for Harris Sherman as the USDA undersecretary in charge of the National Forest Service.

"[The letter's purpose is] hopefully to get this conversation under way, so that as [Sherman] goes through the confirmation process, he will be asked what he intends to do," Freudenthal said.

Freudenthal said while he thinks Forest Service personnel stationed locally realize how devastating the bark beetle epidemic has been, federal policymakers don't yet fully comprehend the scope of the problem.

"I think at a policy level and a resource allocation level, it just has not taken hold," he said.

Wyoming's congressional delegation, which was sent copies of Freudenthal's letter, echoed the governor's desire to act quickly against the bark beetle problem.

"I strongly support working with the Forest Service and other stakeholders to deal with the bark beetle epidemic that is plaguing our forests," said U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., in a statement. "We need to do everything we can to fight them. Governor Freudenthal has shared a number of good ideas and I hope Secretary Vilsack will work with us to prevent further spread of these pests."

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Wednesday that while the senator had not yet seen Freudenthal's letter, he "supports efforts to curb the dangerous threat posed by the bark beetle."

"Senator Barrasso will persist in efforts to fight the bark beetle and protect folks in Wyoming," said Barrasso spokesman Gregory Keeley. "He will continue to raise concerns with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of Agriculture."

U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said in a statement that she has met with the county commissioners about the bark beetle issue and "would likely support any effort to heighten awareness and develop a strategy for prevention."

Contact capital bureau Jeremy Pelzer at (307) 632-1244 or at jeremy.pelzer@trib.com.