About Us
THE GROWTH OF THE CO-OP
The HPCC was incorporated in 1999 by five HPWPS directors.
Its purpose is to provide a structure for carrying out business
activities in the watershed and the Co-op is the tenure holder for
the Community Forest Agreement K1B.
Any resident of Harrop-Procter may purchase a share
and the share is for the life of the resident and is non- transferable.
Directors are elected at the annual AGM and at least half of the
HPCC directors must also be HPWPS directors.
The co-op grew to 98 members in its first year of operation and at present has 80 members.
Like most co-ops, each member has one vote. A co-op
was chosen over a regular corporate model, where voting power is
derived from the number of shares owned, which may have eventually
given some community and co-op members more power than others.
It is a "not-for-profit" co-op because
shareholders receive no dividends. Decisions are made by the membership
and are to be for the benefit of the community as a whole.

Surverying forests to develop
eco-system based management plan.
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A co-operative operates on the basis of one share
one vote.
Shareholders receive no dividends and decisions are
made by the membership and are to be for the benefit of the community.
The co-operative operates through committees comprised
of directors and interested community members. It retains a general
manager, a forest manager, a woodlands operation manager, administrative
support and sales personel.
Volunteers are still a large factor in the success
of the project and they contribute on average 200 hours monthly.
The co-op business is divided
into two subsidiary companies.

Milling wood harvested in the local watersheds.

Co-op General Manager
Ramona Faust displaying
Sunshine Bay Botanicals
gift baskets.
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1.
Harrop-Procter
Forest Products
The forest products division is charged with cutting and milling
trees from the Community Forest, and to market them as eco-certified
logs and lumber. We are enacting plans to develop chain of custody
manufacturing. This is preferred to exporting logs and lumber to
other centers as it will provide local employment.
2. Sunshine
Bay Botanicals
In the botanicals division, we are harvesting herbs from the forest
and combining these with organically grown herbs from surrounding
farmland. These are marketed as dried herbs, teas, and tinctures.
Eco-Tourism
The co-op also plans to develop educational, low
impact tourism in the watershed, and have hired Youth Employment
Teams to upgrade existing hiking trails. Some work has already been
done on local trails.
Maps of our local trails network are available
from the Co-op office, or from the Procter store.
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