What’s After The Pine Beetle?
Seventy percent of Colorado’s lodge pole pines have been damaged by the current pine beetle infestation, which is on track to leave behind a Rhode Island-sized area of deforested land. Difficult to prevent on a macro level, the process seems destined to run it’s course, like the infestation of the 1970’s.
The loss of this many live trees means we will have beautiful killed blue pine to work with for many years to come. But after the cycle the material needs to be harvested promptly or we will lose much of the inventory to the elements, including fire. It’s difficult to log in rugged areas with no roads and little permanent logging infrastructure, so the harvesting task seems daunting. And it’s unrealistic to expect anyone to pour dollars into infrastructure for an ephemeral resource.
Half log Beetle Kill Pine at Colorado Golf Club
There have been many good ideas to utilize and encourage the use of beetle kill pine. Wood pellets for wood burning stoves and slabs for siding are common uses. The State of Colorado has even made beetle kill products exempt from state sales tax obligation!
We will continue to do our part to utilize this fantastic wood whenever we can and we look forward to times when our Colorado forests are healing so well that we are forced to import beetle kill pine from other places!
- Published in Beetle Kill Pine Furniture
Custom Projects Have Their Day
Custom projects are the life blood of the aspen log furniture business. The range of possibilities keep folks intrigued by the thought of customizing their own space with fantastic designs. Often these ideas may seem outlandish at the conception, but most often when brought to fruition these are the projects which yield the highest results.
This marvelous beetle kill pine bar was designed by our clients for their primary residence along the Colorado foothills. It is eight feet long in all directions, and features four separate parts that fit together seamlessly and full aspen log trim, edging and foot rail.
Hinged doors on the lowers hide adjustable shelves and a space for the refrigerator. The uppers feature four glass-panel doors and a space for the big screen. The wall adorns a lovely five foot etched glass mirror complete with a rendition of the clients golden retriever. The barstools are beetle kill pine and aspen log. They feature arms and of course heavy duty swivels.
Dream big and you can see how marvelous custom projects can be. Creating something unique and beautiful in the universe is only one concept away!
- Published in Aspen Log Furniture, Beetle Kill Pine Furniture, Custom Projects, Uncategorized
Summer Is The Season To Harvest Aspen
As we enjoy the last several spring snowstorms of the year here in Denver, we are more patiently awaiting the snows in the mountains to subside. We count on spring storms in the Rockies at higher elevations to provide additional snowpack to supply our reservoirs and we typically get plenty of it, all the way through May!
When the last of the mountain snow melts, we will head off into the woods in search of the best standing-dead aspen trees we can find. We cover miles of ground to discover new and remote spots which will yield useful feed stock: straight, curvy, dark and gnarly and clear and unique. The nature of our business is to create beautiful furniture in a sustainable manner.
Although we may have to wait a bit longer to harvest this years crop, when we find what we’re looking for, we won’t have any drying time because these trees are already dry and ready to be built into new and exciting projects. The best news is we always have gorgeous aspen in stock to start your project immediately.
- Published in Aspen Log Furniture, Beetle Kill Pine Furniture, Custom Projects