Work as value or expense

[Mark Cowdrey]

I think this fits under sustainability.
Have been thinking about Bio Woodsman’s comment in another post about making more money. Money, as a meduium of exchange of value, is an integral part of our society & pretty much a necessity. I think it is fair to say that we all have need for goods & services that require that we exchange money for them, so therefore we need to produce goods or services that we can exchange for money to get it to spend.
I have noticed several posts, & its a general topic of discussion in the draft horse community, about the viability of making a living with horses. Carl has written some good stuff on this, addressing, if I may put words in his mouth, the possiblity of making a living as well as the importance & benefit of doing more than making a living.

(As an aside for more grinding later, it seems to me that it is a rare household today that supports its need for mony by only one endeavor, horse-wise or not. So that “making a living with horses” might only be part of a household’s financial picture.)

Regarding that “more”, I am recalling an editorial that Lynn Miller wrote several years ago about, as I recall, the time spent with our horses not being an expense, but being “income”, or recieved value. Does anyone remember that essay? Or recall the year & issue? Lynn, are you still out there? I hope so. Just ignore the little smiley faces, I do. Carl, I hope I haven’t mis-interpreted you.
Mark

[Gabe Ayers]

Mark and readers,

Something I often do when publicly speaking about the issue of money in the context of modern animal powered culture, sustainability and real life is: I reach in my back pocket, pull out my wallet and say, This is the most sensitive part of everyone’s environment. The point being that until we make it so folks can make more money doing the right things environmentally – nothing will change.

That is why I make the statement that Restorative Forestry makes the most money over the long term for everyone. Now the economics of silvicultural prescriptions could be the next discussion here and that is appropriate, but not what I want to share at this moment.

What I want to share is the overall value of what we are all interested in doing and how we see that it is very valuable to everyone on the planet beyond the current bank account balance or my wallet.

Those values do include the issue of what is it worth to maintain your human dignity of feeling good about what you are doing with yourself. That is priceless but could be quantified as a mental health issue meaning if it is what it takes to keep someone sanely progressing in life, then it is valuable, particularly when they are productive members of a community, society and economy. Productive means they are generating money. In our case it is often a creation of wealth because it wouldn’t occur without our activities. There are many forested sites that are not available to conventional methods for reasons held by the private landowners. They basically will choose to do nothing rather than clear cut or have a mechanized logger do a high grade in their woods. Remember as I said earlier this is the largest current landowner condition and therefore represents the largest single amount of forest land in that ownership status. We, modern animal powered – horse loggers can access this forest with culture, not just money. This is empowerment of the ground level worker, which is one of the goals of our organization. It is bottom up change. This is because we are the best at it. We achieve the objectives of the landowner of management for the health of the forest and provide raw materials into the industry that wouldn’t be available without our efforts. This is real wealth creation. This is currently seen by many as a niche activity, but it is a growing niche that will be further supported as time goes on.

Restorative and therefore sustainable forestry will be in more demand as we learn more about the total “Value” of the forest for the public good. Education about quantifying the value of all the Ecological Services of the forest including, Carbon sequestration and storage are one of our greatest services along with, direct income for ourselves, the landowners and the oldest and largest industry in the east….forest products. We and others are working on this value having a direct money return for the ground level practitioners. It will happen eventually, sooner than later.

How we will make more money is a matter of the economics over the long term. This will be the challenge of the future – to deal with landowners that have vision for the future and no demand for immediate money through liquidating their forested assets through conventional forestry practices.

Now the details of how we make more money are complex. The first is the consideration of how we make money practicing restorative forestry based on worst first single tree selection and modern animal powered extraction. This is done by an innovative payment system based upon traditional share cropping arrangements that have been a part of the culture or rural life in the south since the civil war. Our innovation is to pay on a sliding scale, meaning that the more the material is worth the more we pay for it to the landowner. The key is that the lower value material, which the woods are full of is not paid for at all in the first entry into a forest. This material is barely worth paying for it’s own harvesting, so you can’t pay for it and make any money. We start paying a share of the value once that material becomes more valuable than what we want as a living wage logging cost.
But when you work with a landowner that has the vision to see the improved value and production of their future forest you can make this work. Most private landowners don’t buy/own small forested tracts for speculative timber investment, but for the aesthetic beauty of the setting and their surroundings. Our method retains, improves and enhances the “look” and income production capacity of the forest by cultivating the best specimens for later harvest.

I think this is enough on this subject for now, although not complete, but I have to go out and do some other things and will return to it and see if there are any responses, questions or comments.

I always want to invite folks to our web site, which is large and seems hard to get around on, but there is much information that about exactly how we do this. Particularly the HHFF documents section. Be patient, read it all, let us know what you think. We are a 501c3 non-profit, public charity organization that exist for the public good. All donations are tax deductible. I know the folks that are on this site are not wealthy, but that needed to be said nonetheless. Every penny counts and over 80 cents of every dollar goes to the ground level workers. Compare that to most environmental organizations. particularly the bigger ones. Read about our DRAFTWOOD program, it is innovative.

We have had positive feedback from this site so far and truly appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to read this and again let us know what you think.

Jason Rutledge, one of many Biological Woodsmen

http://healingharvestforestfoundation.org

[Carl Russell]

By diversifying the enterprise of our farm and home-life, and simultaneously developing and improving the skills that we need to provide for ourselves food, heat, buildings, trained animals, electrical power systems, shod horses, home-plumbed wood fired hot water heating systems, etc. we turn many of our endeavors into the making of livelihood, not earning of living. But to earn for the loans, fuel bills etc. we have to produce product and services. Even then the livelihood comes into play because it is the foundation. I don’t measure time I put into my livelihood as expense that needs to be covered by those money-making enterprises. Like putting manure into a garden most of the time we spend with our animals, kids, land, garden and so on, is truly an investment. It is an investment that may never be cashed in.
Because it is an investment, I don’t see it as an expense and therefore it doesn’t weigh down the equation. As Mark suggests there is something odd about this investment that is difficult to explain but it kind of sneaks up on you like the moment when you realize that this kid “helping” you move firewood truly believes that he/she is contributing, and that even though you know you could have moved twice as much all by yourself you are having one of those rare experiences that make your whole life worth-while. That is when I say I get my profit in places where money has no value. So think of the magic of making an investment that provides profit but is not an expense, then do the math!!! Carl

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