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back to around 1900, the most recent epidemic began in the 1990s on pine trees from Baja California in Mexico to British Columbia in Canada. The insects have infected a swath of the western United States that threatens the timber industry, already ailing from the hobbled housing market.
• The blue stain can cut the wood's value by two-thirds, said Carson Engelskirger, forest programs manager with the Black Hills Forest Resource Association. The coloring doesn't affect the strength of the wood, but consumers mistake the fungus for mold or a defect, relegating the lumber to being used for purposes such as crating or the backing of inexpensive chairs.

• Bill Coburn, a procurement forester with Neiman Timber Co. in Spearfish, S.D., said his biggest concern isn't the color of wood but rather thinning the forest to reduce the destruction and expansion of the epidemic.
• While driving through the winding roads of the Black Hills, Coburn pointed out daubs of rust-colored trees killed by the beetles among the lush green pines. He wor

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