A Sense of Purpose

The Olympic Peninsula is home to some of the worlds’ greatest softwood forests. But for decades, raw logs from the region have been shipped abroad for processing. What was left behind? The Peninsula’s people.


The Jefferson Timber Cooperative is part of a budding local wood movement that is revitalizing long-neglected rural communities on the Olympic Peninsula. We draw inspiration from the local food movement—itself only 20 years old—which has been a driving force for positive ecological, social, and economic change. 


Our goals are to create prosperity-wage, highly skilled jobs and stop the export of raw logs and ensuing loss of wealth, families, and talent. 


Our work starts with growing native trees in sustainably managed, permanently protected forests and ends with beautiful products: from lumber and architectural wood to unique furniture for our customers’ homes and businesses. 


By processing and marketing local wood, we are creating high-value products, pride-of-place, and a talented workforce. An integrated local wood economy also protects wildlife habitat, prevents forest conversion, increases carbon sequestration, and closes the resource-use loop by upcycling wood waste like offcuts and sawdust into biofuels, mulches, and other high-demand products. 

The Jefferson Timber Cooperative began in a series of conversations among small timber-growers and sawyers about the possibility of combining forces to brand and market local wood. 


Early on, the group established an operating area that would encompass the eastern part of the Olympic Peninsula, from the Hamma Hamma to the Dungeness River watersheds. Our vision was to make this work a force for good in our local communities and forests. 


As discussions continued, the group brainstormed about the possibility of sharing kilns, planers, waste-handling equipment, dry storage, trucks, and other capital-intensive items that small businesses can’t afford on their own. This conversation led the group to explore the possibility of incorporating as a cooperative—an idea that became a reality in January 2025.


JTC recently signed a long-term lease on 12.2 acres of land owned by the Port of Port Townsend, and is currently developing the site as a local wood processing center and showroom. 

Thank you!

The Timber Cooperative is grateful for the strong support shown by community members, officials, and agencies, including: 


  • Chickadee Forestry
  • EDC Team Jefferson
  • Jefferson County Commissioners
  • NextCycle Washington
  • Northwest Cooperative Development Center
  • Port of Port Townsend 
  • Port Townsend Paper Mill
  • Sustainable Northwest Wood