The Forestry Forum

What is a typical return to the landowner for a final  harvest in your area figured by the acre instead of the piece? Does whole tree harvesting add or detract from that figure?

From my limited experience,  here in northern NH a typical return is $300-400/acre on large lots. Lots are generally spruce-fir or low grade hardwood. Chipping doesn't add much to the total.

Back when the markets were hot in 2005, some took $2000/acre to the bank. For a least a decade before it was always $500-750/acre. Must be around that figure now since the collapse. You couldn't use a selection for that big money, it was all flattened to the last hazel nut bush. We are talking mature timber running 24-36 cord/acre. And those figures are on pulpwood specs. But at the time, the logger was grossing nearly $3000/acre on the prices for pulp for the low end of that range. This wasn't on land that was hacked through and high graded previously. There were many 50-60 acre lots with nearly $100,000 in stumpage. But the thing is, the landowner is left with a brush pile until it regenerates or what's left takes ahold. You couldn't buy a piece of land at those prices and sit on it to do a proper selection, the loggers would swoop in and buy the stumpage and move on to the next. The landowner was only interested in the money. I've seen some land we did silviculture for landowners (pre-commercial thinning) they would use that in their wheeling and dealing to sell to Crabbe Lumber Co. We are loosing our private timberland piecemeal to these outfits either before or after a harvest and they are not required to do silviculture on them. They are a softwood company, and buying up hardwood ground and flattening it and doing nothing with it. They wouldn't thin 10 % of their land they have cleared off and if it's hardwood forget it. I don't get it.

A 30 year old loblolly pine plantation thinned twice and managed for sawtimber would bring $1800-$2000/acre at clearcut.  Stumpage prices are as low as they have been in 15 - 20 years, so this is a low point on the cycle.  Increase that by about 1/3rd for the top of the cycle.

This is a very different scenario than hardwood in the NE, however.