The Steamboat Pilot & Today

The mountain pine beetle has devastated parts of the Steamboat Ski Area.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Steve Yanoski, with Scribeline Timberworks Inc. in Steamboat Springs, assembles a structure made of lodgepole pine at a picnic area in the West End Village subdivision.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Joe Redfern, of J Bonn Wood Products, cuts a log into pieces of lumber at the Steamboat Springs sawmill. The lumber will be used in the construction of homes in the Steamboat area.

Photo by John F. Russell

Lumber produced from trees killed by beetles is stacked in a pile at J Bonn Wood Products in Steamboat Springs. It will be used in home construction. Bonn is one of several local businessmen hoping to find a silver lining in the beetle epidemic in Colorado.

Photo by John F. Russell

Beau Heggie, with Heggie Logging, replaces a chain on the harvester at a Roosevelt National Forest logging site.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Jerry Heggie, left, and Frank “Red” Peters, with Wyo.-based Heggie Logging, talk about the logging industry at a logging site in the Roosevelt National Forest.

Photo by Matt Stensland

John Redmond demonstrates one of the wood-pellet boilers he sells for the Danish Company TARM USA. The pellets can be made from the scrap material created by many area sawmills processing trees killed by beetles.

Photo by John F. Russell

Scrap materials created by many area sawmills can be used to produce wood pellets to fire wood-burning boilers.

Photo by John F. Russell

Rocky Mountain Pellet Co. plant manager Bob Stahl explains how the pellet plant will work once it is operational.

Photo by Matt Stensland

A machine cuts the limbs off lodgepole pines at Snow Mountain Ranch near Granby.

Photo by Matt Stensland

People canoe in the reservoir at Snow Mountain Ranch, surrounded by beetle-killed pines.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Billy Oerding, Mike Miller and Arcadio Rojas own and operate More Lumber near Milner. The owners hope the lumber mill can find an upside to the beetle epidemic that is devastating forests across the West.

Photo by John F. Russell

Heavy equipment moves recently cut trees at the More Lumber company near Milner. The owners say they are hoping to capitalize on the bark beetle epidemic by clearing, and putting the dead trees to a productive use. They say there will be more dead trees in the nearby forest than they can process at the plant.

Photo by John F. Russell

Logs wait to be milled at the More Lumber company near Milner. The owners say they are hoping to capitalize on the bark beetle epidemic by processing the lumber that is being cleared from nearby forests.

Photo by John F. Russell

Billy Oerding talks about the operation of the More Lumber mill located in Milner. Oerding and his partners opened the mill to process the growing number of trees being cut down because of the beetle epidemic in Colorado forests.

Photo by John F. Russell

Joe Bonn, owner of J Bonn Wood Products, is processing and using trees killed by beetles in his Steamboat Springs business. He says the trees killed by the beetle epidemic have a unique look that can add character to any home.

Photo by John F. Russell

Logs at J Bonn Wood Products wait to be processed. The small mill, located in Steamboat Springs, uses beetle-killed trees from the Steamboat area to make a number of different products used in building homes.

Photo by John F. Russell

This large tree was killed by beetles and harvested from a nearby forest. The beetles bore into the wood to lay their eggs. A fungus kills the trees and leaves a unique blue-tinted stain behind.

Photo by John F. Russell

Joe Bonn is hoping customers will think the trademark blue stain left behind by beetles adds to the value of the lumber he mills at his small plant in Steamboat Springs. Bonn is using beetle-killed lumber to build homes.

Photo by John F. Russell

John Redmond holds the wood pellets used in the wood-pellet boilers he sells for Danish Company TARM USA. The pellets can be made from the scrap material that is created by many area saw mills that are busy processing trees killed by beetles.

Photo by John F. Russell

A log truck pulls out of YMCA of the Rockies’ Snow Mountain Ranch near Granby, which was devastated by the pine beetle.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Snow Mountain Ranch grounds foreman John Carmichael surveys a logging site at the YMCA camp.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Phelps Lane, with Kremmling-based wood pellet mill Confluence Energy, stands in a pile of wood chips that will be turned into pellets.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Realtor Elwin Crabtree, a 40-year veteran of the Grand County market, said the beetle initially had a negative impact on the market but that it rebounded shortly thereafter.

Photo by Matt Stensland

A machine cuts the limbs off lodgepole pines at Snow Mountain Ranch near Granby.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Directly across from the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum in British Columbia is a lumber mill.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Williams Lake, British Columbia, resident Colin Rolston says in addition to making products and keeping people working, increased logging would create natural breaks in the forest to protect against the wildfire dangers.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Steve Yanoski, with Scribeline Timberworks Inc. in Steamboat Springs, constructs a structure made out of lodgepole pine at a picnic area in West End Village subdivision.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Steve Yanoski, with Scribeline Timberworks Inc. in Steamboat Springs, brushes wood shavings from a structure built in West End Village subdivision.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Steve Yanoski, right, and Dan Juba, with Scribeline Timberworks Inc. in Steamboat Springs, place a beam on a structure they were building in West End Village subdivision.

Photo by Matt Stensland

James Tirrul-Jones, the museum curator at Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum in British Columbia, discusses the pine beetle exhibit.

Photo by Matt Stensland

The timber sale contract in Jerry Heggie's truck outlines the details and requirements of the logging operation.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Beau Heggie, with Heggie Logging, uses a harvester to cut down a lodgepole pine.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Jerry Heggie with his 20-year-old nephew, Beau, at a logging site.

Photo by Matt Stensland

When open, the Rocky Mountain Pellet Co. in Walden will have the ability to produce 150,000 tons of pellets a year.

Photo by Matt Stensland