Skip to main content

Woodland News

Back to News
Sales Continue to Impress!

Though it differs from area to area and mill to mill, lumber shortages remain wide-spread, with some producers in the Appalachian region saying inventories are at their lowest point in years. Labor and trucking shortages continue, making it difficult to fulfill orders.  This, coupled with the increasing domestic demand and continued steady international demand has bolstered stumpage values, which is great news for hardwood forest landowners!

We just wanted to keep you current using just a few examples of the continuous batch of timber sales we are putting out for bid.  Here are two more recent sale results showing current market activity:

Timber Sale A

A small timber sale (“Timber Sale A”) in southwestern NY delivered excellent results in this hot market.  FORECON cruised and marked a wood lot that contained approximately 60,000 board feet (Doyle Log Rule), having most of the volume in sugar maple (46,800 bf), followed by black cherry (4,800 bf) and hickory (2,100 bf), along with a few other minor species making up the difference.  A bid prospectus containing a list of the number of trees and volumes by species, along with terms of the sale and sale maps, was mailed out to prospective bidders.  The results were as follows:

Picture1

There was good bid participation in this sale, with five different bidders responding.  The high bid was 2.3 times higher than the low bid, with 2 bids below the average and 3 above.  It was estimated that the sugar maple came in at about $1,385/MBF; black cherry about $1,704/MBF; and hickory about $320/MBF (Doyle).

Timber Sale B

Another sale of note (“Timber Sale B”) was held in northwestern PA and responded well to the local demand; this was a significantly larger sale in volume on about 44 acres.  FORECON cruised and marked this timber sale, an offering which contained about 277,500 board feet (Doyle Log Rule), predominantly comprised of black cherry (a total of 109,500 bf), sugar maple (81,400 bf), and red maple (81,300 bf), along with a few other minor species making up the difference.  A bid prospectus containing a list of the number of trees and volumes by species, along with terms of the sale and sale maps, was also mailed out to prospective bidders.  The results for this sale were as follows:

Picture2

This sale had 5 bidders participate, and the high bid was 1.9 times higher than the lowest bid, with 2 bids above the average, and 3 bids below.  It was estimated that the black cherry averaged about $1,516/MBF (Doyle), sugar maple about $1,111/MBF, and red maple about $555/MBF.


Again, these are just several recent timber sale examples, and as always, please keep in mind that results depend on a variety of circumstances; quality and species of timber, access conditions, and prospectus terms are just some of them.  The timber markets in our region remain very active and we will continue to bring more insight into bidding results in subsequent posts.

If you have timber you may be interested in selling and want a long-standing professional forestry firm representing your best interests involved in the process, please don’t hesitate to call any of our FORECON offices.  Our foresters would be very happy to speak with you about the markets, and more importantly, your goals and objectives for your land. Please be patient as the demand for timber sales services has been very high!