DENVER — For 25 years, Jon Weekley has been turning Colorado trees killed by bark beetles into furniture he says is built to last generations.
Weekley, owner of Medicine Wolf Log Furniture on Santa Fe in Denver, uses locally sourced aspen and beetle-kill pine to craft beds, tables and chairs.
“It was a family interest. My grandmother was an antiques dealer, and my parents were collectors, so I've always been interested in furniture and craftsmanship of furniture,” Woodley said. “We spend our time building stuff that’s going to be around for a long time.”
Beetle-kill pine gets its distinctive blue streaking from a fungus the insects carry. Beetles have been killing millions of trees in Colorado since the 1990s. Woodley said that, if harvested quickly enough, beetle-kill pine is just as strong as normal wood. He said that the idea that beetle-kill pine is weak comes from how there is just so much of it, and a high percentage of it has been sitting dead in forests for over a decade.
“If that beetle-kill sat out in the forest for 10 years, it’s the same as a maple, same as an oak,” Woodley said. “Eventually they're going to start losing their integrity.”
Turning beetle-kill wood into furniture is also part of a wildfire mitigation and sustainability effort. Dead trees are more flammable than live trees and removing them from forests helps reduce the risk of wildfire. Taking material from local forests in Colorado is also a way to be more efficient with money.
“The sustainability aspect of the business is important,” Woodley said. “It’s also more efficient… You’ll run into shipping and more fuel expenditure when you start getting materials outside the region. It’s a good way to keep costs down for the customer, as well.”
