It’s All Good!
Greetings,
The month of September 2025 will be memorable for years to come. History has been made with the recently formed Timber Professionals Cooperative Enterprises (TPCE) and their purchase of the first logger cooperative owned chip producing facility in the United States. With the purchase of the chip mill in northeastern Wisconsin, TPCE has created a new model that provides stability and long-term opportunity for loggers and truckers, while supporting healthy forests, strong communities, and the region’s forest economy.
For those who may not remember, the TPC was originally formed with the goal of purchasing Wisconsin Rapids, and later the Park Falls paper mills. Since the attempts to purchase failed, those mills have been scrapped and turned into vacant sites reminding those communities of their once prosperous history. Reviving those mills back to state of production did not happen, however, many lessons were learned and the thought of a cooperative owned, locally operated mill brought with it an excitement for the future that kept the cooperative vision of ownership alive.
The day of cooperative ownership was a long time in coming. Cooperatives were discussed several times by loggers in the last decade and the loss of three wood consuming mills within a one-year period was the straw that broke the camel’s back and drove them into action. As Laura Delaney, Communications Director for TPCE stated, “the process to raise funds and move to the actual purchase has been a long one.”
The model used to create the TPC and TPCE comes from a small logging town in remote Quebec called Sacre-Coeur. The town had a sawmill which after its 3rd bankruptcy in 10 years, remained idle for a 2.5-year period. When the bank tried to liquidate, the community coordinated with the provincial credit union and government to buy the mill for $1.2 million. The community created Boisaco, Inc. (“bois” means wood in French) which is an ownership strategy composed of three entities, 2 coops and one community investor group. Since the formation of the Boisaco group in the mid 1980’s and with their investment strategy, this small cooperative now has 7 thriving businesses at the site where a sawmill once remained idle and broke for 2.5 years. What a great example to set the stage for the formation of the TPC.
With the Boisaco example to follow, the TPCE moved forward and it here it is today making its first mill purchase. Interestingly there are some differences between the Boisaco example and the American formed Timber Professionals Cooperative. One difference is that the TPC received zero dollars from the state government toward the purchase of either of the two mills it originally sought to purchase, nor did it ask for any funding for the current purchase. The purchase money was raised from private investors and a bank loan which is guaranteed by a USDA program. Had the Boisaco been followed exactly has originally planned, there was a good chance that the one small community in northern Wisconsin, the City of Park Falls, would still have its pulp and paper mill. The city and surrounding areas were very dependent on the paper mill which had the best paying jobs in the region. Fact is, the city, nor the cooperative, received any assistance to keep the mill intact and operational under this new cooperative business model. Instead, the community received a $5 million dollar grant from the current administration to remodel a building and turn into a YMCA without a swimming pool.
The reality is that the paper mill could have been purchased and kept out of the hands of the scrap dealer for just over $2 million. That mill should be running today and producing container board, the loggers should have been paid for the wood they delivered, the union workers should have received all the back pay and vacation pay they lost, all the local businesses should have been paid for their services and the city should be thriving and vibrant as it once was. Sure, it was a smaller mill, but there are small customers also who needed the product. It’s all relative. Being competitive doesn’t always mean being bigger. It’s more about being smart, innovative, and minimizing waste of material and time.
While it would have been awesome to keep the Park Falls Wisconsin mill productive and thriving, things happen for a reason. The TPCE, its members, investors, and supporters can now move forward with great pride and enthusiasm because they accomplished their purchase without government funding. Beyond a bank loan and USDA loan guarantee, the TPCE is beholding to no one except themselves and their investors. Their purchase is a true, free-market purchase and business opportunity. That stated, the success and growth of the cooperative model will be an even sweeter victory moving forward.
Today’s society by design, has become increasingly dependent on government for many things including the daily wellbeing of multiple citizens. From the United Nations all the way down to regional planning commissions, the push is for government to dictate where people live and control what they do. The Niagara Escarpment and St Croix River Scenic Byway are prime examples of government control over property and people. Didn’t the colonies break away from Britian and the king to get away from government control? Wasn’t the United States formed, and the Constitution written to implement that by God, all men are created equal and have the right to own property whereby they would control the wealth, and the government as opposed to government controlling the wealth and the people?
Aside from owning a mill, what TPCE has accomplished took courage, vision, leadership and a lengthy commitment of time. Breaking the mold of government dependence and leading by example that a business can be built on traditional free market values, will be the greatest accomplishment of the entire project.
Until Next month,
Henry