Woodnet believes that agglomerated industries of small, complementary businesses provide a much more fluid, stable, and sustainable economy. If one business goes away, for whatever reason, it leaves only a blip on the economic charts, and another venture may start up in its tracks. Some of the small businesses Woodnet helps to start will eventually grow into large employers. B. Environmental Sustainability. Progress, as defined by history, means that bigger equipment and larger, faster operations are almost always better.
Overhead is lower and costs per thousand board feet decrease.
But a shift in paradigms is required. We need new silvicultural prescriptions that emulate natural systems, while still offering wise use of valuable commodity resources in the process of returning to, and maintaining, forest ecosystems in a more natural state. And they can and will do so with much more environmental sensitivity, if the options and implications are effectively communicated. A number of growing markets exist for these specialty forest products which are often under- or unutilized, and undervalued. Certification programs such as SmartWood, which promote the use of wood products derived from forests managed in an ecologically supportive fashion, including silvicultural methods which more closely emulate natural processes.