The Living Forest Co-op

I'm here in Washburn, Wisconsin staying with Charly Ray in his amazing cabin in the woods setup, doing some photography of people involved with the co-op that he Generally Manages. He is part of a network of people of different skills and mindsets but all in harmony with mother nature. They plant trees, they kill weeds, they burn brush, they do forest management plans and they live a life in the woods and of the woods. The mentality of life with folks in the co-op extends outside of work. Charly's home is built in large part from lumber on his own property. The goal of the co-op is to give power to small landowners in the timber market while foresting sustainably.














Andy Ledin, the co-op's forestry technician, spends an afternoon planting white spruce on the edge of a woods and a field.















Charly's daughter Caroline spends a summer morning on their porch at their Washburn home, which is currently being worked on with local wood (from his lot even).




















Emery, an independent logging contractor who works with the co-op, poses for a portrait during a lunch break at one of his jobs. Emery has been in the woods since he was six years old, turning 58 next week. He once spent 72 days in a row on a job. He's got some good stories and looks at his job as an opportunity to change one person's mind at a time when it comes to getting people informed on how cutting down trees can actually be good for their land.


More to come ...