Otsego Forest Products Cooperative Association of Cooperstown, New York: An Evaluation

Excerpts from the report Foreward: From time to time cooperatives have been organized in many parts of the United States to perform limited forest-management or forest-products-marketing services. One of the most successful cooperatives in this field is the Otsego Forest Products Cooperative Association of Cooperstown, N. Y. The unique feature of this cooperative is that it eliminates the perennial conflict of interests between the small woodland owner and the processor of forest products. The cooperative does its own processing and thus provides the basis for an integration of forest management with forest utilization. The experiences of the Otsego Forest Products Cooperative Association indicate that cooperatives organized by woodland owners may have an extremely important role in providing the market outlets and the management services needed by owners of small blocks of forest land. The aim of this report is to evaluate the Otsego cooperative and its experiences since it was conceived in the early 1930's.