Despite vast spreads of beetle-kill in the region, La Plata County’s lumber suppliers and custom-home builders are looking elsewhere to obtain the wood.
The cost of building in the area has led to heightened efforts to find cheaper ways to construct homes. One of those ways is to build with the cheap, abundant wood, often pine. The beetle-kill wood is recognizable by its blue tinge.
Multiple local lumber companies and homebuilders say they began carrying or building with the wood about three years ago. “It’s actually more cost-effective, because it’s so abundant right now,” said Christian Rhodes, owner of Summit Construction in Bayfield.
“Typically with siding, you pay by the linear foot. Beetle-kill siding is running like 92 cents or 89 cents per linear foot. Cedar and redwood runs like $1.70 to $2 a linear foot.”
Woods such as cedar have weather-resistant natural oils that beetle-kill wood lacks, so Rhodes mainly uses the dead wood for siding and interior trim rather than as structural posts.
He began building with beetle-kill three years ago, though the motivation was the wood’s unique look, which was in high demand, rather than savings.
Still, the damaged wood is easier on the pockets of both builders, suppliers and individuals purchasing custom homes. Local companies estimate savings to be between 20 and 50 percent for wood replaced by beetle-kill wood.
Russ Turpin opened Custom Touch Builders in 2002 and started using beetle-kill a few years ago when it became ubiquitous in the Rocky Mountains. The cost to ship lumber from Canada couldn’t compare; Turpin said his most recently completed house reflected about $5,000 in savings. Rhodes guessed he saved homeowners $2,000 to $3,000 per project.
But legal restrictions often render beetle-kill in Colorado unavailable, so local companies are sourcing from suppliers who get the wood from outside the state.
Rhodes and Turpin are both loyal to Alpine Lumber Co. as their supplier. Will Kelley, assistant manager at Alpine, says most of the company’s products, including beetle-kill, comes from a Denver-based vendor. None of it is local, he said.
Part of the problem comes from federal and environmental restrictions on logging federal lands such as the San Juan National Forest.
Approximately 90 percent of Colorado’s lumber is shipped in from other states or countries. According to Kent Grant, district forester for the Colorado State Forest Service, a dwindling forest industry means beetle-damaged trees sometimes go unmanaged.
“Colorado was never a huge timber state compared to others on the West Coast, but a lot of the logging industry has been going away quietly over time,” Grant said.
“Canada competes, which created some economic problems here. It’s no secret that most of the timber comes off national forest lands, and supply of that has been reduced over time and varied.”
The San Juan National Forest near Wolf Creek Pass has been ravaged in the past by beetle infestation. A previous report by The Durango Herald said the pest infested approximately 183,000 acres of forest between 1996-2013. Forest officials have discussed logging and managed burning as potential remedial measures.
But local builders and suppliers still lament that much of the beetle-kill in Wolf Creek is off-limits.
“We’re bringing in as much lumber from other places, which is sad because Wolf Creek is full of beetle-kill,” Rhodes said.
“All the stuff we get, because it has to be heat-treated, is getting shipped in from other states, simply because the Forest Service hasn’t opened up local mills to logging.”
jpace@durangoherald.com
