Beetle Percussion

By now many have seen or heard about the devastation beetles have caused North American pine forests in the western half of the continent. An extended drought in the late 1990s and early 2000s is considered the spark that set off the explosive assault. Beyond that initial drought, three other factors have facilitated the epidemic: warmer winters, old forests, and continued dry conditions. With global temperatures on the rise, beetle eggs and larvae have a better chance of surviving the winter; it is only with a continued deep freeze of five days or more that the beetle population can be controlled. In the Colorado Rocky Mountains alone, there are over 3.3 million acres of woodland that has been killed by a beetle infestation. The beetles burrow into the bark of the trees laying their eggs, and in the process a fungus carried by the beetles infect the trees. The fungus ultimately kills the tree and turns it's grain into a blue-grey color. Beetle percussion produces hand made ecologically helpful percussion products from North American beetle-killed trees. We source the majority of our lumber from Colorado, but also other beetle affected states like 200 yr old pines from Montana and ash trees from Kansas City. Our goal is to use as many recycled and reclaimed materials as possible to hand craft unique, high quality percussion products.