Selling Your Timber Without Regrets

It is no secret that the logging industry at large has a lot of unscrupulous members.In fact, some states such as Kentucky even publish a bad actors list to warn timber owners of the nefarious acts committed by some logging companies. Over the years, logging companies have misrepresented the timber harvesting process or outright lied, leading to countless horror stories.

Ethical Practices Protecting Landowners

Timber Works builds its reputation and referral business by consistently treating landowners and customers with the highest standards of ethics and professionalism. Since most landowners are not experts regarding logging and timber sales, it is far too easy for them to be taken advantage of in these transactions.

We prioritize educating our partner landowners instead of simply selling to them. The following list highlights common mistakes landowners make when signing timber harvest agreements and explains how Timber Works actively prevents them.

Don’t Sell “All Merchantable Timber”

All Merchantable Timber” is usually logger speak for anything and everything that has a commercial value greater than the cost of harvesting it. In these arrangements, logging companies will pay a landowner a fixed amount for the right to harvest timber from your woods. The amount of compensation paid the landowner is often only loosely based on the actual value of the timber contained in the stand.

Unlimited Logging A Threat to Forest Health

“Without limits on the number of trees or the amount of timber a logger can legally cut, the results are often devastating to the forest’s health. This can leave the land under-stocked, drastically reducing its future growth and productivity.”

Our timber purchase agreements are never ambiguous. Trees harvested by Timber Works are always marked at chest height, marked at the base to ensure evidence of selection remains even after the tree is removed, and numbered. The land owners we partner with are encouraged to participate in the marking process and provided a numbered list of each tree contained in the timber purchase agreement.

Payment in Full Before Last Tree is Removed

If you’ve spent any time in the timber industry you’ve no doubt heard of timber purchase agreements that promise payment in full before the last tree is removed.

Selling Your Timber Without Regrets

Though on the surface there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with such wording, unscrupulous logging companies have used such a clause in the past to attempt to steal the timber they harvested on a job outright. In fact, we receive several calls a year from angry timber owners who have been compensated little or even nothing at all for their timber despite the fact that the harvest has been completed. These loggers leave a small pile of logs at the site and use this, coupled with the clause described above, as justification for not paying their landowners!

Call it what you wish, but committing such an act against a landowner is theft, plain and simple.

If you partner with Timber Works for your timber harvest, you can rest assured knowing our payment process is transparent and straightforward. Landowners are paid in full for every truckload before it leaves their property. This clear arrangement is outlined in our timber harvest agreements, eliminating any confusion or ambiguity about payment terms.

Ensure Trees Are Properly Marked and Accounted For

Double Stumpage Hidden Risks

In cases of veneer or valuable species such as Black Walnut and White Oak, paying twice the average stumpage price still ends up being quite a bargain.

While a stumpage contract should relate only to a specific lot of timber, some companies add clauses that allow them to cut trees beyond the agreed-upon ones. Sometimes, these clauses promise to pay “double stumpage” for the trees they remove beyond the agreement.

Double stumpage typically refers to twice the average per board foot price for the entire harvest, even though contracts rarely define it explicitly. For high-value species like Black Walnut and White Oak, this calculation often provides a bargain, even at double the average price.

We ensure clarity and transparency in our logging contracts, harvesting only the trees mutually agreed upon. We engage landowners directly in the selection process, guiding them to make informed choices about which trees to harvest. This hands-on approach boosts financial returns while safeguarding the timber stand’s health and future productivity.

Let me know if you’d like further adjustments!

Schedule a free, no-obligation assessment of your standing timber today.