Selling Trees for Lumber

[Tabasco]

Anyone ever sold trees on their property to a lumber company? Reading about lumber shortages got me thinking. I have some big ass pines I wouldn't mind removing, it would be great if I could get rid of them for free.

[fatdog]

My neighbor just started a big cut on 120 acres. In my area you have to have about 20+ acres worth to get them interested right now because so many people are calling them, and they will only do a clear cut, not cut this tree and leave that one. I am sure it varies across the country.

[AKDoug]

Log prices for softwood are not actually up in most areas. Logging companies are getting hosed right now.


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[Cookie Monster]

Don't know where you are at. It all depends - distance to the mill, how many loads, access, equipment needed etc. Folks in your area.

You might get a gyppo logger to fall and buck a few trees to get a load of logs that a self loading truck can pick up but it will be far far from a landscaping job end product.

A logging side I work with would be several grand to just move the equipment in. Logging these days is able how efficient and cheap you can move a fiber. It's done with 2.5 million dollars in equipment - feller buncher, skidders, processor, and log loader.

[Crow Hunter]

Don't do it unless you are planning on selling the land. My Mom did it many years ago on the 40 acres that I grew up on. Select cut 16" mature hardwoods, netted her $15,000 in 2005 ish. Used it to do some remodeling and pave her driveway. I tried to "buy" the wood from her so she wouldn't cut it, but she refused.

Absolutely ruined the woods I grew up playing in. Turned a beautiful park like woods into a tangled thicket mess that is only now getting reasonably passable. Last year my brother and i got "lost" while crow hunting. We werent exactly sure where we were on the property because it looked so different. We were actually about 100 yards further south than we thought we were.

I have some mature woods of my own and as long as I can walk in it and I am not starving to death, I will never have it cut.

[BigD]

Log prices for softwood are not actually up in most areas. Logging companies are getting hosed right now.


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This is correct. The increase in lumber prices so far hasn’t trickled down to standing timber prices. You may have a reason to harvest and sell mature timber, but don’t do it expecting to get premium right now.

[RoyGBiv]

This is correct. The increase in lumber prices so far hasn’t trickled down to standing timber prices. You may have a reason to harvest and sell mature timber, but don’t do it expecting to get premium right now.

Interesting. Thanks.

[rob_s]

Log prices for softwood are not actually up in most areas. Logging companies are getting hosed right now.


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This is my understanding as well.

The theory, apparently, is that the pandemic closed MILLS because they were indoors but that nothing stopped LOGGING because it’s outdoors. I have even heard that prices for raw logs are DOWN because the mills simply can’t keep up. Whatever affect the various storms, power outages, etc have had also affected mills, not logging, further leading to the glut.

To make matters worse, there are supposedly supply chain issues affecting certain kinds of resin, particularly those used to make MDF. So now MDF will become in short supply, causing prices to rise, causing customers that would have chosen it to instead look at regular plywood.

Personally, I’m really excited about all of this in the long run. For one thing, I’m very curious about bamboo plywood, as well as other alternative materials, but being at the shit-dead-end of interstate shipping getting something like bamboo plywood here still isn’t economically viable.

[jtcarm]

Don't do it unless you are planning on selling the land. My Mom did it many years ago on the 40 acres that I grew up on. Select cut 16" mature hardwoods, netted her $15,000 in 2005 ish. Used it to do some remodeling and pave her driveway. I tried to "buy" the wood from her so she wouldn't cut it, but she refused.

Absolutely ruined the woods I grew up playing in. Turned a beautiful park like woods into a tangled thicket mess that is only now getting reasonably passable. Last year my brother and i got "lost" while crow hunting. We werent exactly sure where we were on the property because it looked so different. We were actually about 100 yards further south than we thought we were.

I have some mature woods of my own and as long as I can walk in it and I am not starving to death, I will never have it cut.

“Park like woods” look nice to the human eye, but for supporting wild life and especially game species, I’ll take a tangled thicket.