The National Park Service is launching a 100-day plan to battle pine beetles and reduce the risk of wildfire at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, although officials say they don't yet have all the money needed for the effort.

Crews at Rushmore have been thinning trees for years to make the forest around the mountain carving less susceptible to mountain pine beetles and to catastrophic wildfire.

But efforts have intensified over the past few months as a major pine beetle infestation in the central Black Hills has approached Rushmore by way of the Black Elk Wilderness. Foresters estimate that most of the pine trees in the Black Elk are dead or dying as a result of the bug kill.

Rushmore resource officials said late last year that beetles have already been infesting some trees around the memorial.

In recent days, a special National Park Service Rapid Resource Assessment Team developed what team members call an aggressive plan to blunt the march of the pine beetle toward the memorial.

Rushmore Superintendent Gerard Baker and the action team members outlined the general thrust of the plan at a forest roundtable meeting in Rapid City on Saturday hosted by Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D.

Action will focus on thinning trees on the 1,270-acre forest around Rushmore and on spraying "high-value" old-growth trees with a chemical that repels pine beetles, said Chris Holbeck, chief resource manager for the Park Service's Midwest region based in Omaha, who headed the action team.

Holbeck said the goal is to protect the scenic vistas of the park from pine beetles, to protect the park from encroaching wildfire and to prevent fire from leaving the park.

Foresters say fires in large stands of trees killed by bugs are more likely to become catastrophic.

Holbeck said the park service will need more money to complete the 100-day plan but it has enough seed money to begin work now.

"We'll start with what we have," he said in an interview after Saturday's roundtable.

Baker said funds will be sought from within the National Park Service as well as other sources. He declined to be more specific, but said officials will look at various options.

In any case, Baker said, "We have to start now."

The park service will continue thinning trees, which helps remaining trees better stave off bug attacks, as well as to reduce fuel for wildfires.

Because Rushmore's forest is relatively small, it will be easier to spray old-growth pines around the sculpture and near tourist trails with a bug repellent, Holbeck said.

Rushmore has the second largest continuous stand of old-growth ponderosa pine in the Black Hills, park service officials say.

"Those 1200 acres represent age classes of trees that go back 500 years," Holbeck said. "They are one of the things national parks preserve.

They are an important part of the memorial, Baker said. "They help us tell our story."

In fact, the trees themselves might be a bulwark in the Park Service's defense against the beetles. Holbeck and other park service experts said that because many of the trees are hundreds of years old, they likely have survived previous infestations and developed resistance to the bugs.

Meanwhile, thinning could change the appearance of the forest around the memorial, Baker said. "It will start resembling the area pre-settlement, when we're done," he said.

The park service beetle plan will be conducted in concert with similar projects being carried out by Custer State Park and the Black Hills National Forest.

The Rushmore beetle plan was developed by NPS officials, along with specialists from Custer State Park, the South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression Division, South Dakota State University, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service, and entomology and forest health professionals.

The threat from bugs and wildfire prompted Baker in January to cancel the annual Independence Day celebration fireworks.

Herseth Sandlin said Saturday that she supports Baker's decision. "It highlights how swiftly we have to act to address what's happening. It's not happening out in some sparsely populated wilderness area where there are no roads, no houses, no tourist sites and no industry," Herseth Sandlin said. "This is happening at a national treasure where people across the country and across the world are visiting."

Some critics earlier this year questioned why the park service didn't wait to see if the spring and summer bring enough moisture to reduce the fire danger.

Baker said Rushmore officials had to decide early as part of its long-term plan to prevent fire.

Ray French, a member of the Keystone Town Board, said a wildfire would seriously hurt the Keystone tourism industry. "We have only about 120 days to make our money," French told the roundtable gathering. "If we have the Black Hills here, and it's not all red and burned up, the economy is good. If it isn't, the economy is bad."

French said Keystone officials are already getting questions from potential visitors asking if the town is going to close down in case of fire.

Baker emphasized that although Rushmore won't have fireworks over the Fourth of July, it will have other programs.

"We're not closing down," Baker said. "In fact, we're adding to our programs. We'll have a stronger program this year."

The National Park Service team was still finishing details of the Rushmore bug plan over the weekend and expected to post it on the Internet by Monday morning.

The website, http://parkplanning.nps.gov, will contain information on the plan and provide an avenue for public comment.

To make a comment on-line, go to the planning website, search by park name "Mount Rushmore NMem" and click on the project title "Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan."

Comments can be made by clicking on "Open for Public Comment" and following the prompts. The website is available for public comment until March 15. Copies of the plan will also be available at the Mount Rushmore Information Center until March 15.

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8415 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com.