[3] Both Rust and Sundquist had a love of tree planting but realized that the economics of the industry favored those who organized work crews to bid on jobs with the government or forest owners, rather than merely laboring.
They organized their first work unit in 1971, and successfully bid on reforestation projects, beginning with a subcontract in the Tiller District of the Umpqua National Forest (Hartzell 1987).
Gary Ruvkun, writing in the Coevolution Quarterly 1976 and in the Next Whole Earth Catalog 1980, explained how the coop expanded: A woodsy type character with a full beard, and huge build, and powerful voice called us all around him to chat ...
The main barrier to entry was to organize a crew, and in many cases, to have land or assets available to pledge as collateral when bidding on a contract.
However, this also led to a high turnover, as some members grew tired of the repetitive and backbreaking aspects of tree planting work and moved on to other endeavors after a year or two.
The Hoedads' embrace of direct worker democracy led to some long debates and experiments in pay structure.
Additionally, the co-op faced multiple lawsuits from a group called the Associated Reforestation Contractors (ARC), created specifically to challenge the worker-owned business model.
[6] Hoedad-style cooperative reforestation became less appealing to timber companies and related businesses, which chose instead to recruit migrant workers, many from Latin America.
Undocumented workers and temporary migrants on H-2B visas were willing to work for low wages on commercial tree planting crews.