Distinctly Montana Magazine

the Dust Bowl. Then, in 1998, marked by a wide ring near the log���s outer layer, was La Nina, which brought the region one of its wettest years on record. Notably lacking from the rings is any indication of fire, but this doesn���t come as a surprise to Wager. Since the Great Fire of 1910 roared through these mountains a century ago, fire has been a missing element in the forest. The fire, which burned three million acres and killed 85 people, was the largest in recorded U.S. history. In part because of the fire, the U.S. Forest Service adopted a policy of widespread fire suppression that lasted throughout the century. A RACE TO THE TOP Today, scars from the ���Big Burn��� are visible in the rings of fallen old-growth trees, but few of them remain. The absence of fire fuels the proliferation of small diameter Douglas firs, which are encroaching upon the older pines and larches. In the open-access race for resources that is forest ecology, this competition does not bode well for the giants. ���We���re trying to perpetuate this 300-year-old stand so that it will hopefully live another couple hundred years,��� says Wager as we examine an old-growth stand of ponderosa pines in Pattee Canyon outside of Missoula. Here, on a section of state trust land, he has permits to remove Douglas firs that are choking out the old growth. ���It���s hard to put numbers on it, but when we thin out the understory, there���s less competition for resources and the trees are able to devote more energy to fighting off insects and disease.��� Without the restoration thinning, the fire that enabled the trees to flourish in the past could eventually be their undoing. ���If there was a fire in here now, with all this understory fuel, fire is much more likely to get into the crown,��� says Wager, peering up at a pine crowded in by Douglas firs. ���These trees can���t survive a crown fire.��� Wager sources the wood for his pens from hard-to-reach spots that have been neglected by larger forest restoration projects. By crafting a luxury product from the low-valued timber that surrounds these stands, Wager is providing the necessary economic incentives to accomplish their restoration. DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL Dave Wager, founder of Tree Ring Pens, restores old-growth forests by removing dense understory trees and crafting them into high-end pens. A BUDDING IDEA Trained as a forest ecologist, Dave Wager came up with the idea for tree ring pens back in graduate school at Utah State University. While spending hours counting and measuring tree rings, he discovered that a tree���s rings could be displayed beautifully on a wooden pen. By removing a cross-section of wood from a log, Wager could form a pen blank that included each of the tree���s growth rings, from the center pith to the outer layer of bark. In 2008, Wager received a patent for the pens, and by 2010, he could pursue the business full time. Today, his pens sell in a small but growing retail market across many western states and on his Web site, TreeRingPens.com. For info on PERC���s Enviropreneur Institute, go to: www.distinctlymontana.com/perc132 w w w. d i s t i n c t ly mo nt a na .co m 19

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