The Wyoming delegation; U.S. Senators Mike Enzi, John Barrasso and Representative Cynthia Lummis, all R-Wyo., are calling on the Department of Agriculture to provide Wyoming with greater flexibility to address the state’s forecasted grasshopper epidemic.

In a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the delegation spotlighted the fact that the agency recently allocated more than $50,000 to the state in order to combat the European Grapevine Moth, a pest which does not even exist in Wyoming. The delegation urged the Secretary to allow Wyoming’s Department of Agriculture and Weed and Pest Coordinator flexibility to use this money for grasshopper treatment and highlighted the need for urgency.

"Forecast maps indicate that 160 million acres of western lands will be impacted by grasshoppers," the delegation wrote. "The resulting damage to crops and livestock forage could be catastrophic. The severity of the issue mirrors that of 1985 when the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) treated over 20 million acres of land for grasshoppers. Despite these dire predictions, it does not appear as though the USDA has any sense of urgency in the face of this pending plague. For example, APHIS has currently budgeted enough funds for only 70,000 acres of treatment – a woefully inadequate number."

The delegation also wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson asking for flexibility for land owners struggling to combat the grasshopper.