The Forestry profession has done a very poor job of public outreach. Many Landowners do not know what a Forester does for them and some don’t know they exist. My graduate thesis studied Landower attitudes toward forest management in general and the Forestry profession. I sent a questionnaire out to 500 NIPF Landowners. NIPF is short for non-industrial private forest. There were a lot of questions on there plus a place for written rants. I found a way to analyze the data and put it into usable form for the phD types in Forestry Department and Penn State University. They liked my slide show a lot but to my dismay, many years later I find that the same ignorance exists among the public about what professional Foresters do.

Public Perception of What a Consulting Forester Does for Landowners

Some of the answers I received were pretty sad and unfortunately the same feelings exist today. Answers like: the forest needs no management, Foresters are just out to make money, Why would I pay a percentage of my timber sale, a logger can cut my timber why do I need a Forester.

Often when I tell people I am a Forester, they say something like “Oh, so you’re one of those forest rangers” or “so you work for the State.” Cringe

Recently I decided to do some “day in the life of a Forester” videos on my YouTube channel. Its hard to work and take video at the same time, but I will endeavor to provide some educational content there.

What a Forestry Consultant Does

So, what does a Forester do all day? Well, I would say that the most important thing that I can do for a Landower is to cruise timber and provide a volume and opinion of value. A timber cruise is a measurement based on one of several common sampling techniques and we use statistical analysis to come up with a measurement of the number of trees, their size, quality, species and value. Another way to use the data is to make management decisions based on the cruise. We can make measurements of the growth of the forest to see how much volume is being gained over time. We can make recommendations on what and when to harvest to maximize the return on the investment in a timber commodity. We can observe problems with the overall quality, growth, whether disease is present and what to do about it. Invasive species problems and how to treat them. The cost associated with those activities and where to find government funding to help with those expenses.

A timber cruise should be done at the time you purchase a tract of timber. Whether you plan to harvest or not, you should have this evaluation done prior to your purchase offer to see what value you are getting for your money. But also very important and almost always overlooked is establishing a basis in your timber investment. This basis is used in your tax calculations and can be deducted as a recoverable asset just as an investment in coal or oil. It is depreciated over 17 years and if and when there is a harvest, the initial investment is partially recaptured, thus reducing the capital gain tax on the income from the sale. Pretty important but no one ever does it because they don’t even realize it. Landowners get a 1099 from the timber buyer and must pay taxes on the income. A cruise would have been money well spent if it saves having to pay a quarter of your timber income to the government or if it pushes you into a higher tax bracket that year.

A timber cruise should be done every ten to 20 years to check the growth and health of the forest. In my many years in this business, no one has asked me to do that other than industrial timberland owners.

Timber Sale Administration

Most of the time, what we do is set up timber sales on behalf of the Forest Landowner. What that entails is when someone needs to sell timber, I can go in and advise, mark the trees to be cut, tally the products to be sold and market the timber to potential buyers. Why do I need to pay you to mark trees, can’t the mill forester or the logger do that? Think about it for a minute. Would you take your used car to a dealership and go up to a salesman and ask him what he would pay for that car? Or would you get an opinion from a knowledgeable third party? Would you go into court without a lawyer or do a real estate deal without a Realtor? You could do all of those things, but isn’t it better to have professionals on your side of the deal operating in your best interest?

You will probably sell timber once or twice during your ownership of the property. If you make a bad deal on that first timber sale and you high grade cut the forest and damage the property value, you don’t make much, if anything on your sale while the mill or logger makes the profit. [high grade harvesting is when a logger takes the best, most valuable trees and leaves the poorly formed and low value trees in the woods taking up growing space so you end up with a forest full of “green junk”]

Some things that are facts when it comes to selling timber:

• Some folks think timber is going for X dollars per MBF (thousand board feet) on any given day. Not so. The amount we can get for a timber sale can fluctuate very widely. The general value is determined by demand in the marketplace for the species. The local market depends on how bad the mill needs it, what their estimate of quality is, what their board prices bring and whatever deal they have made with their buyers of the boards they mill. I have had timber sale bids vary by as much as 100% and have seen bids range from highest to lowest, a difference of $100,000

• Every timber harvest operation needs an Erosion and Sedimentation Plan prepared and properly posted on site. If a well written plan is posted, the government agents will leave you alone. I once had a logging job that crossed a stream. I had a plan properly prepared and General Permit for a stream crossing done. We were skidding across a ford. Someone called every agency known to Man and they all converged on the property. All was in order and no violations were seen, and they left without incident.

• A logger makes twice as much on a load of trees when he deals directly with you as when he cuts for a mill. Do the math.

• A sawmill or logger is highly motivated to get your trees, all your valuable trees, in one harvest for the least amount possible. They know what a good deal is at a particular time. Landowners don’t. Good for them if they get your timber for half price.

• There will be no effort made to save timber for the next time, or to harvest in such a way as to regenerate a quality forest.

• Mills and loggers have high-graded most of the private hardwood timber in the country, degrading the quality and quantity of timber growth and leaving green junk growing on most private forest land.

• A timber sale administered by a Forester almost always nets more money for the Landowner

There are instances when hiring a logger or going to only one mill are appropriate. When there is a special circumstance, like very difficult logging conditions, very low timber value, where a feller-buncher is the only practical harvesting method and there are only a few contractors who have one, or where a mill is specializing in a particular species and quality and I know they will pay better than most. But the best reason to go with a particular mill or contractor is to get the kind of job in the end that I want for your property. There are some real hackers out there that will leave you with a carcass and degrade the property more than what you made on the timber.

Having said that, the best way to find the best price is the accurately measure the quantity for sale and conduct a bid to determine who wants it the most.

Why Should I Hire a Consulting Forester?

Here are a couple of examples of recent interactions with Landowners who sold timber without a Forester:

A widow who owned 500 acres of timberland called me to do a cruise of her land so she could take advantage of the NRCS EQIP program to improve her forest for wildlife. She told me that she was not aware of consultants when her and her husband sold some timber. The logger cut over the property line, took all the trees that over a certain diameter, and did not pay her for all of the timber. The logger was fined for the truck being over weight and he paid the fine with her money. No doubt, they didn’t get an appropriate amount for the loads they did get paid for. The skid trail were not retired properly and there is erosion on them. The understory is full of invasive species and the timber that is left is poor quality. I suggested regenerating the entire property, cutting all of the red maple that was left and saving what little oak and cherry that was not cut. Most of the high value oak and cherry trees were taken. An uninformed landowner would probably be happy with this sale since the foresst still had plenty of trees. But the problem is the trees left are mostly worthless pulp wood. I bid sale with TSI required and the proper retirement of the skid trails would have netted more money and there would be another profitable harvest that could be done.

A property I am working on now to improve deer habitat is a mess. Looking at it from the satellite image, it looks nice and green with a full canopy of tree cover. The story on the gound is different. All of the high quality oak, cherry and sugar maple is gone, leaving only yellow poplar, a low value tree, in the overstory, which is shading the understory just enough to make a perfect habitat for all sorts of invasive non-native plants which are taking up growing space and in the case of the oriental bittersweet, killing the trees that remain. If, during the harvest, some of the poplar was cut, the poorly formed trees were taken and some herbicide treatments of invasives were done the timber stand would be in great shape today. It will take years to straighten out the timber growth.

I was hired to inspect a property in New York for timber value. Prior to placing the land on the market, the Landower sold the timber. This is very common as people think that if they sell the timber off, that will net them more money in total. The fact is, if you would have a timber valuation done, you could provide that in your sales information and you can increase the value of the property. This property was raped of all of its valuable timber and skid trails on steep hillsides. There were mountains of cutoffs (worthless logs that were cut from trees dragged to the landing and cut to marketable lengths.) The landing was a mess. The skid roads should have been retired with seeding and waterbars. The landing should have been cleaned up and planted and the cutoffs spread out or removed from the property. I heard the absentee landowner got $100,000 for the timber. I estimated just from looking at what had been there it was worth twice that. If she had done a light harvest of high quality red oak and sugar maple and the landing and skid trails planted with forage, and a timber value in place, the land would have been worth far more than what is sold for. She was left with a carcass to try and get rid of. The property sold for $800/acre. What if it came with great deer habitat and a high timber value with beautiful skid trails for hiking and hunting? A primo property like that would have been worth twice as much.

The bottom line: retaining a consulting forester will get your harvest done according to your goals and protect the land and the timber for the future while staying compliant with environmental laws. Don’t sell timber without one.

Here is a link to a good video about selling your timber:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bAM2L-15nk