Colorado legislation extends tax breaks for beetle-kill wood products

It is hard to miss the large swaths of dead and dying trees caused by the mountain pine and spruce beetle epidemic in Colorado, but there is hope that bill signed into law earlier this month could help speed up the recovery process.

The bill extends and expands a tax exemption on the sale of products made from wood harvested from beetle-kill trees. The tax break covers items such as furniture, firewood, lumber, and sawdust. The bill sponsor says removing beetle-kill trees is critical to future forest health – and with more than 3 million acres of trees destroyed, Colorado needs to approach the problem from every angle.