Direct Marketing of Certified Wood Products: Marketing their own wood as value-added products opens a whole new opportunity for certification of private forests.  Chain of custody is simple and controlled by the owners themselves.  Any certified premium is passed directly to the forest owner, and savings in marketing costs due to higher demand are a certified premium in itself.  Direct sales also allows owners to tell their story to the customer.

Sustainable Woods Cooperatives: When a group of forest owners join together to pool their resources, all these factors can be enhanced.  Small woodlots can be grouped together to form a larger manageable tract of timber.  Combined volumes can make harvesting and processing efficient and profitable.  Owners can participate as fully as they desire and can gain knowledge, experience, and satisfaction from their woods.

Landscape level management becomes feasible as neighbors work together for their mutual benefit.  Cooperative work parties encourage prescribed burning of prairie and savanna as well as other management projects. 

Staff ecologists monitor all aspects of the operation to insure that the environment is respected and protected.  Restoration of degraded ecosystems is a priority at all times.  Undesirable invasive pests are identified and controlled where possible.

Non-timber forest products and Agroforestry crops can be grown, harvested, processed, and marketed using the same structures of the cooperatives.  Greater diversity of products will benefit all the landowners involved.

Modular Processing Facilities: Community based cooperatives need simple, small, efficient, user-friendly equipment to  process their trees into high-value products.  Modular Sawmill systems, lumber drying kilns, woodworking shops, and warehouse-factory outlet stores are being researched and developed to offer new cooperatives working examples to choose from. 
High Value Logs Sawmill system:  Thin-kerf bandmill, grade resaw, edger saw  and material handling equipment.  Production - about 1 million bf/yr.
Low value or small log system:  Scragg mill, gang resaw, edger saw and material  handling equipment.  Production - about 2 million bf/yr.
Solar Cycle Kiln systems    Production 40-100 thousand bf/yr. each
Wood waste gasification boiler kiln systems  Production  40-1000 thousand bf/yr.
Wood working shop  Production 6 million bf/yr.
Wood product marketing facility - factory outlet and internet sales

These systems need more development and refinement, but offers a simple, modular approach to building a system of forest owner cooperatives.

For more information, contact Sustainable Woods Alliance

back again