We’re a woodland collective, a grove of caretaking workers tending trees through a cooperative practice of economy. We’ve been doing this the whole time, but it’s taken a while to bushwhack our way to an understandable clearing.

For us woodland collective has three primary meanings:

• cooperative forms of ownership by those doing the tending work

• collaborative and participatory forms of decision-making

• collection of woodlands we caretake in partnership with others, including the trees themselves

This kind of woodland collective is grounded in mutual aid, reciprocity, enough, and the seven principles of cooperatives. As the saying goes, “all collectives are cooperatives, but not all cooperatives are collectives.” Decisions are made as close to home as possible, so those affected by decisions are involved, with delegation for the sake of ease and skill. We don’t mind useful roles, entrusting tasks, and clear directives, but we also don’t want hierarchy to get stuck, so we favor participatory decision-making based on advice and consent. More along the lines of heterarchy: an ecological distinction without rank, like a food web, that allows for movable parts while also allowing for everyone’s capacity and capability to matter. This kind of rotational leadership is based on seasons, needs, and abilities, letting hierarchy (priority and deference) and egalitarianism (participation and parity) coexist to propagate power. Our operating agreement serves as a living constitution for roles and responsibilities.

Talking about ourselves as a woodland collective allows the mycelial threads of our relationships to spread further, scaling out and scaling deep. Not everyone makes every decision together, but we act as a grove that can grow so members can come and go. Not everyone under the Forest Farm canopy is involved in the nursery, but everyone is involved in the solidarity economy of trees and land care.