In April, Gov. Gray Davis requested $430 million to remove unhealthy beetle-infested trees on 415,000 acres of forest, trees that experts warned could fuel a catastrophic Southern California fire.
The request went "unanswered" until last week - - - and then was denied.
The Davis administration had sent a letter to Bush on April 16th of this year warning that the bark beetle infestation was threatening severe fires in three counties:
Riverside
San Diego
San Bernardino
Davis warned that 75,000 residents of mountain communities were threatened. He requested $300 million from the US Forest Service and $130 million from a FEMA account of unused money that was set aside from previous disasters.
The letter was also signed by Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and REPUBLICAN REPS:
Mary Bono of Palm Springs
Jerry Lewis of Redlands ( San Bernardino County )
Darrell Issa of Vista ( San Diego County )
David Dreier of San Dimas ( Los Angeles County )
Duncan Hunter of Alpine ( San Diego County )
Boxer said, "We named 3 of the 4 counties that are up in smoke, and we begged him ( Bush ) to delcare a disaster, we begged him. We saw this coming a mile away"
As of August, there was an estimated 350,000 bug-killed acres in the San Bernardino National Forest. Yet, the US Forestry Service had initially proposed just $2 million this past year to treat bug-killed trees in the San Bernardino National Forest.

The request went "unanswered" until last week - - - and then was denied.
The Davis administration had sent a letter to Bush on April 16th of this year warning that the bark beetle infestation was threatening severe fires in three counties:
Riverside
San Diego
San Bernardino
Davis warned that 75,000 residents of mountain communities were threatened. He requested $300 million from the US Forest Service and $130 million from a FEMA account of unused money that was set aside from previous disasters.
The letter was also signed by Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and REPUBLICAN REPS:
Mary Bono of Palm Springs
Jerry Lewis of Redlands ( San Bernardino County )
Darrell Issa of Vista ( San Diego County )
David Dreier of San Dimas ( Los Angeles County )
Duncan Hunter of Alpine ( San Diego County )
Boxer said, "We named 3 of the 4 counties that are up in smoke, and we begged him ( Bush ) to delcare a disaster, we begged him. We saw this coming a mile away"
As of August, there was an estimated 350,000 bug-killed acres in the San Bernardino National Forest. Yet, the US Forestry Service had initially proposed just $2 million this past year to treat bug-killed trees in the San Bernardino National Forest.
