Draftwood

Rick, we had a good gathering. It was pretty much agreed that the bottom line really comes down to marketing the end product. Of course it is kind of a chicken and the egg thing. How do we put into place practices that support a possible market advantage if we don’t have the market? Or, how can we develop a market for source differentiated product if we don’t have in place the practices that support it?

I think the first step is going to be over the next year to work with draft animal loggers in the NE to determine what they are doing already that could classify them as Biological Woodsmen, or what practices they may need to improve upon.

Then in the fall of 2014 I would like to hold a NE Biological Woodsmens Week, where our NE BW would come to participate in a week-long harvest. In this exercise we can compare notes on techniques and equipment, augment our understanding of the Draftwood Standards, enhance our social bonds, and expose the broader public to the concept to increase the possibilities for marketing. This event, hopefully co-sponsored with DAPNet, would also be an opportunity for novices and landowners to observe and learn.

Folks should understand that my preference is toward unity and cooperation, not competition. I decided a few years ago, that much of what Healing Harvest Forest Foundation and Draftwood
Inc. have been doing is stuff that many of us have been doing for years anyway. Sometimes it seems hard to endorse the work that others have done, but from my perspective, and from talking in detail with Jason Rutledge, it makes a lot of sense to try to expand his work, rather than to recreate a new concept.

There are legal realities to using the terms and standards that he has created, but he has a significant emphasis on cultural development rather than on some corporate business plan. I am suggesting, and have his full support and cooperation, to develop a Draftwood Program in the NE.

Some have suggested that this would be a separate entity, but I really just see it as a regional association that would be primarily for organization and cooperative marketing, possibly pooling our resources and production at certain times.

If this works, then eventually the lines between NE and SE, or other regions, would dissolve as the broader market for Draftwood increases.

Donn Hewes (DAPNet BOD Pres.) and I are in communication now trying to work out details for the 2014 NE BWW, and I will be reaching out to producers to see about developing a BW certification process. I am also trying to arrange time to travel to VA this Nov to HHFF BWW 2013.

Carl

Sam would be happy to participate as long as it doesn’t fall between October 6-11. I might just tag along if he does go 🙂