Woodlot Management by Jay Heinrich

Author:Jay Heinrich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Published: 1981-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

Man Does Not Live On Fuel Alone

There are many uses of a forest that may be much more valuable than producing firewood. The most important of these is lumber. The U.S. Forest Service predicts that lumber demand will double by the year 2000 — a time when many of your more promising young trees could be large enough to sell at the promised higher prices. Call local sawmills and find out what kinds of wood are sold for lumber in your area, and what the prices are. Thanks to a rising housing demand, timber prices are rising twice as fast as the prices of other crops in this country.

But suppose your woodlot is a small one — ten acres, say. Is it worth a logger’s while to take out such small amounts of timber? Is it worth your while to go through the trouble of selling the timber? All that depends on what you have on that small lot. A single huge, flawless black walnut tree can sell for several thousand dollars (one such tree reportedly brought $30,000 on the stump).

Before you consider selling any of your trees, get help from the government. A county or state forester will give you advice on whether you have timber to sell, and how to get more help to sell it. A word to the wise: seek advice. If you do not have experience in selling wood products, you risk ruining your woods and depleting your bank account. (See Help! in the back of this bulletin.)

One way to find out whether or not you have timber to sell is to conduct your own informal “cruise,” or inventory, and see what you have. By conducting your own cruise, you can estimate the number of trees that should be removed to increase the vigor of the trees that remain. Then you can get a forester to help you find out the prices you can get for the trees you remove, and whether the trees are good for firewood or for other uses. If you are interested only in producing firewood, do not discount the possibility that you will want to sell timber in the distant future.

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