Making the Best of Beetle Kill—with New Gear

“Blue-stain pine” used to go to waste. Now companies are using the wood to make outdoor lifestyle products—and the trend is growing.

Gear Shed

For more than a decade, drought conditions have set the stage for a mountain pine beetle epidemic throughout millions of acres of forest in the Rocky Mountain West. Standing dead lodgepole pines pose a safety risk when left by roadsides or in campgrounds, and state agencies have struggled to clear out the hazardous wood. But it hasn’t all ended up in the chipper. Seeing opportunity in the timber, various designers in Colorado and Montana have manipulated the wood into everything from cabinets to coffins.

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