Annual Meeting - June 13th at 9 am

The Oregon Woodland Cooperative is having an annual meeting on June 13th, 9:00 a.m., at the Kinton Grange on Scholls Ferry Road. There will be a report on the "State of the Co-op" and election of new Board members - and a whole lot more!

The Co-op sees the annual meeting as a time for partners, friends, and members "to reconnect" over a good potluck meal, to learn about the projects that the Co-op is engaged in to help members better manage and market their forest products, and to see and hear from our partners about activities or projects they are involved in.

Invitation and tentative agenda (PDF)

Value Added Products Grant

As of October 10th 2008 the grant period is officially over. Through this grant the OWC has seen improvements to its business model including the development of core infrastructure and many new programs for members to participate in. Some of our accomplishments over the past year include:

• Generating enough in-kind from members and partners to take full advantage of the grant funds
• Membership growth: 9 new members with 10,000 new acres
• Partnership with Wilco
• A custom cut where members received a 10% premium over market log price
• Establishment of a bundled firewood program
• A new co-op accounting system with complete transparency
• Special milling of cull cedar logs into high value decking and beveled siding

Thank you to all the members who participated and created all of these successes!!

Current Happenings

Closing out the Value added Products Grant

Winter is approaching and that means forestry activities are winding down as well. The grant period is also over, which means you won’t see quite the level of activity you’ve seen in the past nine months. We are pleased to announce that all three coordinators will be staying with the co-op, although in a reduced capacity. Please feel free to continue to contact them regarding the co-op programs you are interested in.

The co-op will continue to maintain its office location in North Plains for the foreseeable future. However, we are discontinuing the office phone number. You can call Tom Nygren, or one of the three coordinators directly.

New Feature

We are pleased to add a new feature to our site, a coordinator blog. The blog is written and maintained by Louis Leatherman and discusses entrepreneurship in the forest products industry. Look for the link at the upper right hand corner, or just click here.

Previous Events

Over the past several months the cooperative has held several events for its membership and the public. You can find links to those events and the presentations given, below.

A Free Marketing Seminar for Small Woodland Owners ( 286 KB)

Introducing Ecosystem Markets - What they are and how they work ( 1.88 MB)

Forest Carbon Basics ( 731 KB)