History, Background and Development to the Present and in the Future
This approach is born from an ethic of stewardship and a determination to be improving upon the world within all the processes of addressing human needs from the forests. The progression to a system of “Ecological Capitalism”- meaning paying the provider of the best ecologically improving services - a premium - for the goods resulting for that work. Welcome to the Draftwood Story.
In the late nineties the Ford Foundation sent me to an advisory board session and dinner with a principle player in the founders of the Forest Stewardship Council. Our work predated all the sustainable forestry efforts of that time. The director of the rural poverty
division at Ford thought we should be included in the development enough to pay me to go. I learned a great deal and met some wonderful folks.
At about the same time we were selling Draftwood lumber, flooring and decking - as prescribed by good architects - to The Nature Conservancy, private individuals, builders, contractors and even notable Green Leaders like C2C author, William McDonough
for his personal kitchen cabinets. Draftwood became a registered copy write logo and brandname in 1998 and is the property of Draftwood, Inc.
In 1999 Healing Harvest Forest Foundation was formed and after multiple applications was awarded 501c3 status in order to respond to a Ford Foundation planning grant for a National Demonstration of replicable Community Based Forestry projects. Our non-profit public charity status was based on the understanding that this work was for the public good, in ways no government agency provides. This tax exempt status also includes acknowledgment that while using animal powered extraction, it is impossible to make a living while selling products into a commodity defined market supplied by fossil fuel fired mechanized systems. We were not awarded the final Ford Foundation implementation grant.
So we organically morphed into a public educational organization and community service agency to support the practitioners of Restorative Forestry as educated through the HHFF Biological Woodsman mentor apprentice program. All funding of non-profit
organizations includes submitting a plan for becoming for profit and thereby resolving the need for public support - by becoming a profitable business. That is what the Draftwood program was about before HHFF existed. We now have formed Draftwood, Inc. as the for profit tool of Ecological Capitalism in association with HHFF and other community forestry interests.
In the late nineties the Ford Foundation sent me to an advisory board session and dinner with a principle player in the founders of the Forest Stewardship Council. Our work predated all the sustainable forestry efforts of that time. The director of the rural poverty
division at Ford thought we should be included in the development enough to pay me to go. I learned a great deal and met some wonderful folks.
At about the same time we were selling Draftwood lumber, flooring and decking - as prescribed by good architects - to The Nature Conservancy, private individuals, builders, contractors and even notable Green Leaders like C2C author, William McDonough
for his personal kitchen cabinets. Draftwood became a registered copy write logo and brandname in 1998 and is the property of Draftwood, Inc.
In 1999 Healing Harvest Forest Foundation was formed and after multiple applications was awarded 501c3 status in order to respond to a Ford Foundation planning grant for a National Demonstration of replicable Community Based Forestry projects. Our non-profit public charity status was based on the understanding that this work was for the public good, in ways no government agency provides. This tax exempt status also includes acknowledgment that while using animal powered extraction, it is impossible to make a living while selling products into a commodity defined market supplied by fossil fuel fired mechanized systems. We were not awarded the final Ford Foundation implementation grant.
So we organically morphed into a public educational organization and community service agency to support the practitioners of Restorative Forestry as educated through the HHFF Biological Woodsman mentor apprentice program. All funding of non-profit
organizations includes submitting a plan for becoming for profit and thereby resolving the need for public support - by becoming a profitable business. That is what the Draftwood program was about before HHFF existed. We now have formed Draftwood, Inc. as the for profit tool of Ecological Capitalism in association with HHFF and other community forestry interests.
More information about the Healing Harvest Forest Foundation:
|
"Healing Harvest Forest Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization established in 1999 to develop, implement and support community-based sustainable forestry initiatives, through the widespread use of animal-powered (horse, mule, oxen) extraction of logs and “worst first” single tree selection of individual trees in timber harvesting."
|
