April 9, 2009

The Forest Health Task Force expanded into the evening with an Our Future Summit roundtable on markets for blue stain wood products. Displays and products were available; information was presented by Colorado State Forest Service, local designers, millers/manufacturers, distributors/marketers, tree services/arborists, builders,  Colorado Forest Products, Beetle Kill Trade Association, Colorado Timber Industry Association, Confluence Energy of Kremmling, local municipalities as well as homeowners who have chosen blue stain wood for their home construction and decoration. 

Myths: the blue is mold and the wood means bugs

Beetle-killed trees are structural. They can be graded and stamped. The trees have small knots, and the wood is more stable than Ponderosa Pine. It is very gradable. (Hester’s, a local sawmill, is certified to grade and stamp structural timber.)  
 

Municipalities could set examples by providing acreage for sort yards and using blue stain pine in the construction of public buildings. A subsidized program for a sort yard could benefit a community by decreasing the tree scrap going into the county landfill.  

How can those surrounded by the red forest better the health of our community and environment?  

Environmental and economic goals must be targeted to use the entire tree by adding biomass to soils, decreasing the carbon footprint, and developing markets for blue stain wood.