Using local wood in an area like the Colorado Rockies is a bit of a challenge. For starters, your choices are very limited: Lodge pole and Ponderosa Pine, Spruce and Aspen. There are of course other trees, but in very limited quantities (for example, there are scrub oaks, but they take about 100 years to get 6” in diameter). Currently, the mountain pine bark beetle has supplied the area with a seemingly limitless supply of dead pine trees for my work. As chance would have it, the wood is naturally stained a beautiful bluish green color much desired regionally and nationally.
Despite the limited palate, I enjoy working with local wood. It is of course, environmentally responsible, but also creates work that is “of” this beautiful place I call home.
