Denim Pine
When life hands you a bowl full of lemons, make lemonade. – Ann Landers
So, you have a stand of lodgepole or ponderosa pine trees that have been infected by the mountain pine beetle, and now the wood you have harvested is a pale shade of blue.
What can you do about it?
Well, if you are an association of foresters in British Columbia, Canada, you harvest the timber and sell it as Denim Pine.
This unique looking lumber is safe to use (any beetle larvae or eggs are killed in the kiln drying process) and is as structurally sound as non-stained pine.
While the folks who market Denim Pine are having some fun marketing this lumber, their site also offers a very serious look at the mountain pine beetle infestation in western Canada and documents the massive effort to address this important issue.
interesting as I worked in a sawmill in Nebraska and we sold this at a premium wood called blue pine about ten years ago. Had a friend in Wyoming who worked at a mill that produced milled wood of the same.
intersting note about pine beetle — affects mature trees more than young ones and as a native pest of North America it attacks Austian pine and other imports far more aggressively than our pine.
thanks for the info
WaynO