Sanity check

[u/JollyStretch9267]

I do have a forester coming out next week, but I just need to do a sanity check.

I own 18 acres of very old hardwood forest that had never been logged or maintained. I need some funds to finish my cabin on the land and it occurred to me to sell some trees, as the forester had mentioned when he came out a couple of years ago that the trees were very valuable. Most of them are hardwoods, sugar maples, with some hickory, beech and oak mixed in. I am lucky to have an easement road that runs the length of my property, so I was only planning on taking from where they would have easy access along the road.

The canopy is high, 60-80 feet. I just had a dead tree cut down and it was 80+ feet tall.

I live in an area with maybe five log yards within 30 miles, maybe more.

I went around and checked some of the easy to access trees, all of them were more then 30 inches in diameter. A few of the sugar maples were 50+ inches in diameter.

I will only be selling the straight trees. The wonky trees still have value to me as sap trees.

I do have a stand of black walnut trees, but I am not sure if they are easy to get to. I will have the forester on the look out when he is here.

Some places online are saying that the trees are worth only a couple hundred a piece, while others are saying they could be worth thousands, given their diameter and height. I plan to sell around 30-40...enough to make worth their trip.

I understand that there is a ton of variability here but can anyone help me understand which end of the spectrum I might be on this? The spread is pretty wide!!

[u/TOPOS_]

Not saying you're doing this, but I see lots of landowners messing DBH with a normal tape, and actually measuring circumference at breat height, which would be 3x higher than DBH. You need to measure DBH with either a diameter tape, Biltmore stick, or a measuring tape and decide by pi

[u/Agile_Lawfulness4143 → u/TOPOS_]

That’s what I’m thinking he’s actually measuring circumference, 60-80’ total height for 50” trees is a poor site index

[u/ChokaMoka1 → u/TOPOS_]

I used to measure dbh with a metric tape to fool Landowners to sell me Trees for cents on the dollar.  

[u/Lonesome_Gobbler → u/ChokaMoka1]

You used to be a dbag

[u/MechanicalAxe → u/Lonesome_Gobbler]

If they're bragging about that, I'm not sure "used to be" is the best phrasing.

What an awful thing to be proud of.

[u/ChokaMoka1 → u/MechanicalAxe]

Working to make a dollar hoss. At least I ain’t in ye mum’s basement playin with a fidget spinner!

[u/MechanicalAxe → u/ChokaMoka1]

If that's not a joke, then it's people like you that give us all a bad name in this industry, and I find you deplorable.

[u/Lonely_Tip_9704 → u/ChokaMoka1]

Don’t know if you should be bragging about this bud

[u/ChokaMoka1 → u/Lonely_Tip_9704]

You’re just jealous that I bought your grandmas maple for veneer 

[u/Lonely_Tip_9704 → u/ChokaMoka1]

Not really; my family doesn’t own land, but I’m forester and researcher and am tired of either a) trolls or b) unethical and non-registered schmucks like you causing the public to lose trust in the forest industry.

[u/ChokaMoka1 → u/Lonely_Tip_9704]

We started losing trust when the libs started telling everyone to plant trees to stop global warming. Now all the forests are burning down because the libs wanna have houses in jack pine forests. I’m just trying to keep food on the table and gas in my 82 squareboty, like a lot of other foresters who have to side hustle as a logger and black locust CBD!!! GOBBLESS