CDS has been involved with the development of over 25 sustainable forest owner cooperatives and associations since January of 1998, providing:
- organizational structure development
- business planning
- grant and loan procurement
- member equity structuring
- other technical assistance
These entities provide a range of services to members, including: land stewardship education, development of woodland management plans, sustainable harvesting, processing, and marketing, among others. These organizations strive to provide their members with a return equal to or greater than what they would get from a traditional timber buyer, while at the same time maintaining or improving the ecological and aesthetic condition of their woods.
CDS, along with project partners – The Community Forestry Resource Center, the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin Family Forests, the Blandin Foundation and other organizations – have worked closely to:
- Increase the number of family forest acres under sustainable management in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
- Encourage and assist landscape level forest management at the local level through pilot projects in Wisconsin.
- Conduct coordinated harvests with local landowners to generate economies of scale and improved environmental practices.
- Involve farm supply cooperatives and their members in sustainable forest management and wood marketing.
- Conduct over 20 workshops providing woodland owners with information on sustainable forest management and other forestry-related topics.
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CDS is a founding partner in WoodWorks, a national network of co-op development organizations whose mission is to provide educational, technical assistance, and alliance-building services to forest owner and agroforestry cooperatives and associations—both directly and through national, regional, state-level and sub-state partnerships.
- Goldstar Cooperative - Amery, WI
Educating members to see the forest for the trees in terms of generating new revenue streams from forest products while better managing natural resources was the goal of a study that CDS helped this Northwestern Wisconsin farm-supply cooperative obtain funding for and provided information resources. - The Blandin Foundation - Grand Rapids, MN
By 2015, the Blandin Foundation of Grand Rapids, Minnesota hopes to increase the state’s family-owned forest land from its current 1.3 million acres to 2.3 million acres. CDS completed a research study in 2005 identifying best practices for family forest landowners which served as a catalyst for a 2006 conference sponsored by the Foundation addressing Family Forest Stewardship. CDS consultants helped develop the conference program and participated in presentations.
