Without a consistent supply of moisture, California’s majestic pine trees began to dry up from the inside out.
Parched trees are especially vulnerable to invasion from mountain beetles, which burrow into the bark, lay eggs, and eventually eat their way through the bark, blocking the circulation of water and nutrients around the tree.
The drought and its fallout reached such severity that in October 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency and organized a task force to remove and deal with the dead trees, which, in large quantities, post a catastrophic fire risk.
So far, the task force has largely focused its efforts on getting the dead trees out of the forests, and either using them as biofuel for energy, or shipping them to China for construction.
Beetle larvae leave a fungus that creates unusual streaks of color in the timber of the trees it kills: The sandy pine tones are streaked through with orange, green, and blue ribbons, signifying where the pests burrowed in.
“But we thought they were beautiful,” Lupien tells Fast Company.
So far, the SapphirePine team has custom-built around a dozen pieces of furniture to fill word-of-mouth orders, and have launched a Kickstarter to expand its Oakland-based operations.
Where he grew up in Colorado, pines reach only around 10 inches in diameter; a table made from Colorado pine would take several slabs of wood to complete.
For months before they incorporated as SapphirePine, Lupien and Schabacker worked with mentors at U.C.
Berkeley’s businesses and design schools to build out a market strategy plan.