The ACORN website is designed to provide private woodland owners with information about their land, to help them make informed decisions about its future. Often, landowners are interested in benefits from their land like recreation, nature and habitat, privacy, and timber management. These can frequently be enhanced if considered at scales greater than the individual parcel - especially if an owner’s parcel is small (e.g., 10-20 acres). While some wildlife have modest habitat needs (e.g., an ovenbird needs an acre or two), others have habitat needs that span many ownerships (Wild turkeys range over 250-500 acres. Pileated woodpecker uses a territory of 100-200 acres. Barred owl home range varies from 200-900 acres, Adult female black bears use a territory of 6 to 19 square miles. The home range for a red fox can be over 1,000 acres. White –tailed deer can range from 150-1,300 acres).

Wildlife habitat is not the only reason to consider cooperation or scales larger than individual properties. Recreational trail networks can be enhanced by thinking larger than an individual property, and contacting abutters. Timber harvesting can be potentially enhanced by thinking cooperatively or at larger scales. It might be easier to access that timber in the back of the lot by crossing someone else’s land with permission, or perhaps joint marketing of standing timber or logs could command a better price in the market. Indeed, ironically even privacy could conceivably be enhanced by thinking at larger scales or even cooperating. A neighbor might be considering the sale of their property, which could result in a few new houses, and decreased privacy. Possible communication with other neighbors might mean that people team up to buy the land and keep it forested. Alternatively, connecting the potential seller up with a local land trust might mean that they could sell or donate the development rights of the property, and perhaps generate sufficient income or tax benefit to retain the land without having to sell it outright. Cooperation doesn’t have to mean that landowners join at the hip and contractually work in lock-step with one another. It might be as simple as informally talking about joint interests and seeing what comes of it.

In other parts of the world, private woodland owners have a long history of cooperating, both formally and informally. Landowner cooperatives in Sweden buy logs or standing timber from members, and in turn sell it to mills at negotiated prices that individual owners themselves could not get. Coops work this way in the Canadian Maritime Provinces, Japan, and South Korea, too. In some European countries, landowners cooperate by sharing harvesting equipment or purchasing supplies in bulk. Sometimes landowner cooperatives share or provide services like boundary work or management planning. In France, Germany, and the Netherlands, landowner cooperatives work to consolidate very small parcels (sometimes less than even an acre in size!) into larger units that make management feasible. In Austria and Germany, landowners cooperate to do habitat planning. Some landowner cooperatives provide loans or insurance, or access to green certification. In a world-wide study of private owner cooperation, it was estimated that as many as 3.6 million owners in 19 different countries, who collectively own roughly 70 million acres are members in some form of cooperative. Indeed, woodland owners in southern Vermont have a history of cooperating! They formed the Woodland Owners Association in the Windham County area, which provides education and information to members. At one time in their history, they even owned a railway siding in the Brattleboro area, with the intent to ship railcar loads of logs to market. More information about this important local group can be found on the ACORN home page. The important thing to remember about landowner cooperation is that it doesn’t have to be formal. You don’t have to join a group or sign a contract. There are benefits that can be achieved by thinking more broadly than an individual property - and that starts with communication and the possible sharing of information.

Forester for Swedish forest owner coop uses his cell phone to make contact with roundwood buyers

Japanese forest owners who are part of a cooperative discuss silvicultural options for a Japanese larch stand.