No offense meant but there is a tremendous amount of misinformation regarding our beetle killed forests and the processing of this standing dead timber, so I am going to point out an inaccuracy here... but first, lest I be unjustly hammered on by the environmental activist community, let me state that I am what I describe as a 'sustainable environmentalist' and have long supported intelligent utilization of our local natural resources since well before environmental activism became popular and commonplace as we all come to realize that we have limited natural resources and we should darn well make better and more intelligent use of what we have - especially in lieu of climate change and a worldwide population explosion that will, at the least, strain these resources to the maximum. As the article points out, there has been a tremendous loss to the USA timber and forestry industries, and there are a number of reasons for this - but that is perhaps for later comments, though 2 are valid here. We have a lot of timber in Colorado, (though our forest are projected to shrink by about 75% by 2060), and yes, it is small diameter stock located on tough terrain so this does make it more expensive to process than many other areas, but the most significant two reasons why there is so little processing of forest products are; 1.) An extremely active environmental and conservationist community that is often misinformed because frequently only a part of the story is told in order to gain support to mount lawsuits to stop logging, so it costs the forest service’s enormous amounts of time, resources, and money to fight in court in defense of their position to thin overcrowded and unhealthy forest areas, and  2.) The enormous importation of cheap, (often foreign government subsidized), wood products coming into America.  We simply cannot compete in a very uneven playing field.  In the case of beetle kill wood, both Pine and Spruce, with combined losses in Colorado of billions of trees spanning over 8 million acres with a 70-90% tree mortality rate, it is far more difficult than described with just these two primary conditions... In short, 4 more major factors come into play in Colorado… where I live: 1.) Dead trees have cracks and checks that occur throughout the length, and usually to the center of the tree, as they dry out on the stump, thus cracked trees = cracked boards, so losses are high and often more cost is incurred as re-manufacturing is needed to cull and sort stock to provide good quality lumber products,  2.) In the early 1900's, the lumber industry determined that blue staining in wood was a defect, and thus a downgrade in quality and market price.  This still holds true today for it is obvious they have no mind for marketing blue pine for what it is; beautiful, unique, and exotic appearing Eco-friendly wood that can employ Americans in struggling rural communities that also helps reduce the cost of our society in the removal of timber to protect our infrastructure from fire and falling trees while storing carbon that would otherwise be released to further feed the drought and warming cycle. 3.) Approximately 55 million acres of British Columbia have been killed by the beetles and the Canadian government reduced the cost of timber from about $25 per cubic meter to only $.25 per cubic meter to allow the lumber industry to race through the forest in massive clear cuts in futile attempts to get ahead of the beetle swarms and to remove the timber before it developed cracks.  This resulted in Canadian beetle kill being dumped on the USA market at prices below the cost of production in the USA – and especially at small ‘mom and pop’ mills which cannot compete with mills that produce millions or hundreds of millions of board feet of lumber.  Small mills are all we have left in Colorado because the forest services can not provide a steady and affordable supply of timber – even if it all dead.  This loops back to the environmentalist legal actions… IN FULL DISCLOSURE: Ten years ago I dedicated my life to the utilization of USA beetle killed timber and have done thousands of hours of research while educating the public and operating a business that exclusively provides beetle kill wood flooring, siding, paneling, trim, mantles, and tops that is all Made in the USA."