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Estimating Standing Timber Value

appalachian timber

Valuing Your Standing Timber 1,2,3…

Follow our three part guide to estimate the value of your standing timber. Whether you want to calculate the value of each and every tree, or just familiarize yourself with the process, these articles will give you all the tools you need to identify, estimate volume and value of your timber.

timber lumber identification

What Kind of Tree is it?

Head on over to our Industry Fact Sheet for the scoop on tree identification.

Frequently asked logging questions

Estimating Tree Volume

After you know what tree(s) you have, click here to head on over to our blog post on estimating standing timber volume.

Estimating Standing Timber Value

Estimate Timber Value

Once you know the 1) species and 2) the volume, your ready to estimate the value of your timber. Keep reading.

Timber Value Varies Tremendously

Not every tree is created equal. Some are straight and limbless for long spans while others are crooked and have many limbs in the first 8 feet. There are even possible defects such as hollow centers or mineral stain that are often impossible to detect while a given tree is still standing. For this reason, within a given species, there is potentially a very wide range of values.

Estimate Standing Timber Volume

board footage you harvest is the single most important factor in estimating the value of your standing timber

The easiest step of this process, and one of the most important factors to be considered when assessing the value of a stand of timber, is estimating the volume of the individual trees. Estimating tree volume is explained fully in this blog article. If you don’t feel like reading the article, you can count on mature trees (20+ inches in diameter at chest height) to contain on average between 250 and 500 board feet each, depending on their height. Roughly speaking, a mature tree is big enough that you can’t, or almost can’t, wrap your arms around it (NFL wide receivers aside). If your woods has a lot of these trees, it is probably ready for harvest.

Since timber is sold by the board foot (a volume measurement equal to 144 cubic inches), the board footage you harvest is the single most important factor in estimating the value of your standing timber. The more volume you have that is mature and ready for harvest, the higher the sale price will be.

The Species in Your Woods

After the volume of a particular tree, the second most significant factor in the value of a timber stand is species composition. Is that tree Black Walnut? White Oak? Red Oak? While prices change over time due to market trends, the highest value timber in the Ohio, Indiana and Northern Appalachian region is consistently Black Walnut, followed by White Oak. Other valuable species’ include Hard Maple, Hickory, Tulip Poplar, Oak species included in the white/ red families such as Black Oak and Chinkapin Oak, as well as other regional hardwoods. In general hardwoods tend to be more valuable than softwoods though this is not because they are necessarily actually more dense.

The species composition of your woods is going to depend mostly on where in the world you are. Tree varieties tend to grow along latitudinal lines. The good news is that the our region produces some of the best hardwood timber in the world—if you have a mature woods in this part of the country, it certainly has some real value.

Appalachian Hardwood ID Guide

If you need some help deciphering the species of the trees in your woods, take a look at the gallery below. Each thumbnail opens an infographic explaining the most common hardwood species’ found in the Ohio, Indiana and Northern Appalachian regions including their bark, foliage, typical form and other distinguishing characteristics. You may also consider investing in a paperback field guide, readily available for under $10 at your local bookstore.

Timber Pricing

Now that you’ve compiled a list of the trees you think are ready to harvest and determined approximate board footage on each species, you’re ready to get the calculator out. This is where the process gets a bit complicated. Trees of different grades command widely varying prices.

In assessing the grade of a standing tree, a forester must consider both visible and possible invisible defects—some trees that look beautiful while standing are hollow inside; others have mineral stain due to soil composition factors or past livestock grazing. These deficits, indiscernible while the tree stands, will negatively impact the value of your timber and are often difficult to discern.

However, you can get a good idea of the range of possible values for your standing timber. For this, we turn to The Ohio State University’s Stumpage Price Report. This annual publications lists, by regions of the state, the mean, median and range of prices for various grades of the most commonly sold hardwood tree species’ in our state. Similar documents are produced by most state university agricultural departments and/or by the department of natural resources in your region.

When You look at this sheet you’ll notice grades along the left column. For each species prices are listed for prime logs, number 1 common, number 2 common, blocking with an average for all the different grades combined at the bottom of each section. What you need to know is that these grades correlate with the quality of the lumber that can be cut from a tree, and therefore the value of said lumber.

Prime grade logs will produce mostly FAS lumber (the highest grade) that is well suited for furniture and cabinets. Truly exceptional logs may even be used for veneer. By contrast number 2 common logs are destined to become railroad ties and pallets. This drastic difference in possible uses explains why some logs are worth so much while others would be better used for firewood than lumber.

If you’re woods has been responsibly timbered in the past, and some time has passed since it was last harvested, you likely have a high number of harvestable timber.

The main factor assigning the different grades is the number and size lower limbs on the standing tree. In other words, the longer up the trunk a particular tree stretches without limbs or locations where limbs once anchored, the higher its grade will be. A tree without limbs for the first 16 feet will likely produce two 8 foot prime logs. Further up the tree will be number 1 and number 2 common. You see, each tree will produce several different grades of logs, the quality of which declines proportionately up the trunk toward the canopy.

If you’re woods has been responsibly timbered in the past, and some time has passed since it was last harvested, you likely have a high number of harvestable timber. Still, no timber harvest will contain only prime logs, so for estimation purposes you will likely get a more accurate estimate with average numbers verses the high end values. Using the mean figure for number 1 common logs or the low number from the prime range tells you the approximate value of your standing timber. Another strategy is simply to take the mean number for the “All Grades” entry of the table—the larger your woods the more likely this number is to be accurate. Both options will be used in examples below.

Timber Valuation: An Example

The numbers in the timber pricing report are per 1,000 board feet. For each species divide the number of board feet you’ve estimated by 1,000 and multiply this by the appropriate price from our report.

Let’s say you estimate the volume of your stand of mature White Oak to equal 10,000 board feet. One estimate of its value can be found by multiplying the mean reported for no. 1 common White Oak (425 for Spring of 2012 and 482 in the Fall) by 10 (10,000 board feet divided by 1,000). So you’re White Oak is likely worth about $4,250. Using the second strategy from the paragraph above you would multiply 10 by the “All Grades” mean value of 567, equaling $5,670. Repeat this process for each species you have tallied and you should have a ball park estimate of what your timber is worth.

As you can see, coming up with an exact dollar amount for a tree is difficult. Though part of the proper stewardship of a forest involves continual assessment of the health and maturity of the trees, for non-professionals with large stands of timber the task can be daunting.

Timber Consultations

Timber Works explains every step of both the assessment and the logging processes along the way. We make timber harvesting recommendations that consider the unique characteristics of your woods, and address the input and concerns from you, the land owner, above all others.

We never pressure customers to sign contracts prematurely and we never include ambiguous language about the scope and details of a harvest in the agreements we do make. Timber Works works diligently to ensure your questions and concerns are addressed fully and honestly.

Call or email us today for a hassle free assessment of your standing timber! Click here for more information about logging and timber buying from the professionals at Timber Works.

Review

  1. Estimate the volume and individual species’ footage in your timber stand.
  2. If you can wrap your arms around a particular tree (excluding professional athletes) it might not be quite ready to harvest, though this depends in part on species and other conditions.
  3. The more mature trees you have, the more likely it is that your timber is ready for harvest.
  4. To estimate the value of your timber, take the volume, divided by 1,000, and multiply it by the price quoted in your states standing timber stumpage report.

Comments 11

  1. Is there any way that you could give me an approximate selling value of my 2 walnut trees. The black walnut is 7ft around at chest height & the English is 8ft around at chest height and they are both about 10ft from the ground to the first knot or limb & are probably about 50ft high. Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Thanking you in advance
    Sincerely Pam Berry Sycamore Ohio

  2. I’m thinking about buying some land and using the trees to pay for half of the property. Their is a lot of oak trees.but not sure what kind of oak.it’s 125 acres how much do u think I would have to take to do that.I know it’s hard to say with out seeing it but just a rough estimate

  3. My wife’s parents own a farm in eastern NC that grows pine trees for lumber. I was wondering when the best time typically it is to harvest pine trees (either longleaf or loblolly) to make the most profit from them. They were recently harvested and the widest stump I could find was approximately 20″ with most stumps being 16″. There was approximately 150+ acres of pines. I feel like they may have been harvested too early since they were thinned less than 5 years ago. I think most of the harvest was sold as pulp wood. Is this pretty common?

  4. A neghbor who cut down 20 of our trees with no permission white oak, red oak, maple . from 44″ at trunk to 60 ‘ height and some 30″ trunk 60′ height & some 24″ trunk , 60’ in height. Want to know what to charge him in a lump sum to resolve this issue with out going to court. A ball park figure would be nice. Thank u for yr input

  5. Unfortunately to one of the trees probably won’t pay for the cost of their extraction. An average walnut tree will be worth about $250 but it can go up quite a bit depending on quality. That said, trees that grow in the yard are usually not very valuable.

  6. Entirely possible this was used for pulpwood or other lower priced wood. If that is the case, it’s not true necessarily that it was cut too early. It really depends on the usage.

  7. Pingback: How Long Are Trees Allowed To Grow Before Harvested – SabinoCanyon.com

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