From the Rapid City Journal, dateline Hill City:
Once in a while, it’s nice to see where the money goes.
That’s what brought U.S. Sen. John Thune -- all dressed up with someplace to go -- into the forest above Mitchell Lake in the Black Hills for a brief outdoor break squeezed in between an afternoon aviation meeting and an evening political bash.
The South Dakota Republican, who recently helped extract an extra $1.4 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Black Hills National Forest logging projects, made himself -- and his wife, Kimberley -- late for an evening GOP dinner in order to tromp around the woods in his senatorial suit and Western-style dress boots for a half hour or so.
He was in good company, including forest supervisor Craig Bobzien -- who was only too happen to give the senator a close-up look at the next target in the U.S. Forest Service war against wildfires and pine beetles.
Bobzien said he was still celebrating the news from Thune’s office this week about a funding boost that will bring the forest’s timber-harvest budget up to $11 million for the year. It will also help increase the logging total this year to 85 million board feet, a 6 million board foot increase from last year.
And Bobzien said the Mitchell project is just the kind of work the additional money can and should buy.
“This Mitchell project is exactly what this forest needs,” he said, after giving Thune a quick briefing on the 15,500-acre project aimed at benefiting both commercial loggers and forest management plans. “We’re just really happy that the extra money came in. It’s critical.”
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