In case you missed today’s DJC Construction Industry Spotlight, let me call attention to a feature that might interest you: a Seattle man is using reclaimed logs that have spent the last 100 years underwater, due to the creation of the Panama Canal, in his Panamanian projects.

His name is Joel Jelderks, he used to do marketing work for Red Bull in Seattle, and now he lives in Panama City, Panama, where he’s developing five projects. Three are historic preservation/recreation projects in the city’s historic Casco Viejo quarter, and two are in the countryside on the Azuero Peninsula.

In the historic buildings, Jelderks is using recovered wood from a Panamanian company called Ardan International Group. When the Panama Canal was constructed, tropical hardwood forests were flooded, creating the 263-mile Lake Gatun. Ardan, working with a company called Gunderboom out of Alaska, trains local people from the Kuna tribe to harvest the underwater trees. For more about Ardan and their products, see their comprehensive Web site here.

“The interior of the trees is an amazing quality of wood. You can’t get the quality of wood anymore without cutting down in a protected rainforest,” Jelderks said. ”A lot of these trees are 400 years old.”

Intriguing idea, eh? But before the wheels in your head start spinning for Seattle projects using Panamanian recovered wood, know that Ardan is very selective about the projects it chooses to supply, though Jelderks says it has a 20-year supply of wood.