The Timberdoodle BeaverWorks

From skunkworks (noun): a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy, with the task of working on advanced projects

Innovation goes beyond a product. It’s a system, a model, a way of integrating existing concepts with new ways of doing things. It creates opportunity and, at its best, makes the world a better place.

In the timber industry, innovation is often invested exclusively in woodbasket regions - the northern forests of the northeast, plantation pines in the southeast, and the Douglas fir of the Pacific Northwest. It focuses on bigger, faster, more uniform. And it leaves behind the small producers across the country who continue to steward forests, support rural jobs, and create beautiful lumber from a renewable natural resource.

Our personal skunkworks project - our innovations lab, our beaverworks - centers the small business community that makes up the resilient and necessary backbone of the timber industry. We want to ensure the economic viability of small timber producers while simultaneously supporting robust local wood markets for the end lumber users; homeowners, builders, farmers, and anyone else who appreciates the natural beauty and versatility of wood.

Our vision is to use our experience within the timber industry and related fields (conservation, nonprofit management, startup manufacturing), our own business operations, and the input from our timber industry colleagues to solve issues plaguing local lumber production. We plan to use Timberdoodle Farm as a lab rat / guinea pig / trial run while simultaneously establishing the framework for long-term operations to be run as an employee-owned cooperative. We very deliberately want to work thoughtfully and iteratively - not chase big returns at a fast pace.

We started our business in 2009, unintentionally right as the construction industry - the major driver of wood sales - was imploding in a recession. We’ve watched the industry fail to adapt to market fluctuations or to legitimate concerns about forest management practices. The answer is always efficiency and consolidation, more AI, and the flashy new product that will save everything.

We propose a more grassroots approach - making it easier for small businesses to operate by integrating new equipment designed specifically for nimble operations with tried and true business principles like marketing and economical entry points to the industry. It’s not a scalable solution so much as it is a reproducible solution. It’s not a one-size-fits-all because the true strength of the timber industry lies in the creative niches and diverse forest types; these solutions are adaptable to local timber resources and regional markets.

“You come out of engineering thinking that you’re going to design a widget that will save the world. Instead you realize that it’s the system and the community that will save the world, but maybe the widget can help get you there” - Miles on his holistic approach to equipment design.

“I went to college because I wanted to work with birds. But birds don’t exist in a vacuum: they need healthy habitats and food and safe travel lanes. And the people - the land stewards, the forest managers who care about restoring and maintaining healthy spaces - we’re all connected together” - Katrina, on the importance of integrating log markets and lumber usage with forest management.

The Proposal

  • Phase I

    Mills are closing as solid wood products lose market share to plastics. We believe that one way to build this back is through local mills selling direct to customers. We used our 10+ years of experience and feedback from small mills across the country to develop Phase I, which addresses this challenge by providing a template for sales and marketing, including open-source, small mill specific technology developed by Timberdoodle Farm.

  • Phase II

    Addresses log supply and waste handling. An equipment attachment line and shingle mill tailored specifically to the economic harvesting of small lots and at a scale appropriate for small operations to afford and integrate. Developed by Timberdoodle Farm (proprietary tech). This allows small businesses to effectively fill niche forestry roles in their region, whether that’s fire mitigation, forest resiliency, or carbon management.

  • Phase III

    Full utilization, vertical integration, and environmental circularity of local wood products. Integrates a self-contained chip burning heat source and thermal modification unit to both consume waste and add value to wood products. Thermal modification produces chemical-free, rot-resistant lumber; by using waste instead of natural gas or electric, we reduce operating costs therefor expanding market opportunities for the products.

The Funding Proposition

As folks who make our money from cutting down trees, we often find ourselves having to choose between our environmental values or the option of greater profit; since we don’t like to compromise on the environment, this limits our financial capacity to innovate while still maintaining our business operations. BeaverWorks is our proposal to fund and trial 10 years’ worth of ideas and make them available to the wider small business community.

A Novel Partnership

Conventional funding opportunities rarely trickle down to small manufacturing businesses and those that do require an amount of overhead that render them impractical. This proposal links funding directly with results: we have in-house design and fabrication capabilities and an established business with which to trial all three phases.

Financial Leverage

We are offering our business as a guinea pig / lab rat / case study and expect to contribute all of our regular operations towards implementation and testing of each project phase.

The three phases of this proposed project are individually standalone and we have already secured varying amounts of matched investment for each.

The End Goal

To create an employee-owned B corp that’s committed to the continued manufacturing of products that work, and the continued iteration of products that don’t. A company that supports the industry’s small business ecosystem by not playing games with parts availability, by treating its workers and customers with respect, and bringing some humanity back to the relationships between equipment builders and equipment users.

Intrigued? Know of a foundation or individual who might be interested in investing? Want more details? Send us an email!

We’re dreaming big but it’s time for a true revolution in the timber industry, one which centers the people and communities that care about their local forests. We think we have some solutions. And - “Knowing what I do, there would be no future peace for me if I kept silent” (Rachel Carson)