WEST IN SHOW
October 1, 2026
Matt Cox was not a traveling comedian. He didn’t go from state to state across the western part of the country trying to be funny with a wild idea. But the California-born mulch man sure got a lot of laughs in the late 1990s when he walked onto job sites and pitched businesses on the idea of coloring bark. The laughs these days are about how much the landscape has changed
BARKING UP A TREE
The market for colored mulch developed earlier on the East Coast. By the mid-1990s, producers there were popping up to serve a new consumer demand. But the West had a natural pathway to success with its abundant timber and growing interest in diverting material from landfills.
“Twenty-six years ago, there was really nothing from California to Colorado,” said Cox, who is now a Territory Manager at Colorbiotics. “Eventually people realized it was a great way to make use of their forest byproducts, and it blossomed from there.”
Mountain West Bark Products was one of the pioneers in the West.
“When we started coloring in 2000, it was really kind of a small item,” said general manager Byron Morgan. “We were one of the first ones, and we started coloring for box stores. Then it just took off and became a big part of what we do out West.”
Today, Mountain West has multiple bagging plants across several states, including Rexburg, Idaho; Superior, Montana; and Piedmont, South Dakota. The United Mulch and Soil side of the business operates a plant in Orland, California.
RE-USER FRIENDLY
About 200 miles to the south, DPS in Vernalis, California has found its niche by taking in wood recycling and turning it into wholesale landscape products.
Its unique, custom-built system grinds the wood, screens it and sends the finished material along different conveyors without ever touching the ground. Each week, it diverts more than 500 tons of wood that would otherwise end up in landfills or be burned in cogeneration plants.
“The state doesn’t always give you the solution, but they put regulations in place for you to come up with your own solutions,” said Tristen Travalini, the DPS manager. “This is our version of that.”
The operation utilizes four Sahara colorizers to produce black, hickory brown and mahogany wood mulch from the recycled material it receives.
“It’s extremely gratifying that we’re able to make such a big impact by making beautiful products for people’s homes and landscaping solutions, as well as recycling for the Central Valley of California.” - Tristen Travalini.
NEW SCENE
“The West Coast has the sunshine,” the Beach Boys sang, and that’s another reason colored mulch has caught on. It’s not only an affordable type of landscaping, but its appearance holds up through the sun-drenched days of every season.
What was unfamiliar — if not ridiculed decades earlier has turned into a market that consumes millions of pounds of colorant annually. It has grown through forest byproducts. It has expanded through wood recycling. And it has found a home with consumers who enjoy its aesthetics and appreciate the role of colored mulch in the environment.
Not a laughing matter anymore, but certainly one to smile about.