How often can you harvest timber?
Most of the time, it can be done every 20 or 30 years once the timber is large enough. Shelterwood: This is done in mature hardwood forests and is a regeneration harvest that targets the species composition of the future stand.
There are many methods of timber harvesting, but selective logging is the most sustainable method of harvesting trees.
- Red Oak Trees & Other Oaks.
- Black Cherry.
- Hickory.
- Maple.
- Red Alder.
- Sycamore.
- Willow.
- Birch.
Timber harvests are concentrated in Maine, the Lake States, the lower South and Pacific Northwest regions. The South is the largest timber producing region in the country accounting for nearly 62% of all U.S. timber harvest.
In tropical climates with warm weather and a plentiful water supply, a tree can become fully grown in 30 years. A tree in cooler regions may take several hundred years to reach full maturity depending upon the tree species.
There are three major groups of timber harvest practices; clearcutting, shelterwood and selection systems.
If trees are selectively marked and the harvest is conducted sustainably and ethically, timber may be able to be harvested as often as every 10 to 15 years. This results in a continual source of income as well as continued maintenance, benefitting the overall health and productivity of the timber stand.
Pine Timber Values/Acre | ||
---|---|---|
Year | Plantation* | Natural |
2017 | $1,542 | $1,618 |
2018 | $1,694 | $1,738 |
2019 | $1,566 | $2,055 |
Some of the most recognized hardwoods include maple, oak, ash, beech, sycamore, alder and cherry. Another important factor in product value is tree size. Trees that are taller and larger in diameter will bring higher sale prices because they have more usable volume.
- Sandalwood-- $20,000 per tree. ...
- African Blackwood-- $10,000 per kilogram. ...
- Agar Wood-- $10,000 per kilogram. ...
- Bocote-- $30 per board. ...
- Pink Ivory-- $8 per board.
How big do trees need to be for logging?
In most cases, properties 20 acres and larger are an ideal size for logging timber (again, depending also on the quantity, size, and types of the trees on the property). This is, of course, just a ballpark number.
Country | Global market share of total wood product exports | % change since 2012 |
---|---|---|
China | 12.8% | 47.2% |
Canada | 12.3% | 74.5% |
United States | 8.4% | 51.5% |
Germany | 7.6% | 30.5% |

Harvesting affects nearly 10 million acres in the U.S. annually, or about 1.3% of all forest land. Over half the harvest area is in the South which provides nearly 60% of all the Nation's forest products annually.
Logging can impact climate change by increasing the amount of free carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Plant life stores carbon dioxide within its tissues. Deforestation often goes hand in hand with fire, which releases this stored carbon dioxide into the air, compounding the greenhouse gas effects.
Loggers use chainsaws and other special equipment to cut marked trees. Once a tree is felled, its branches are cut off. This is called delimbing. Most of the time the branches are left in the woods.
When pulpwood markets are favorable, a complete stand harvest within 15 to 20 years is possible and may bring an acceptable return. However, longer rotations can bring higher financial returns on larger diameter trees if landowners are willing to begin thinning their pine stands when trees are 10 to 15 years old.
When summer arrives, growth slows since there is less water in the soil. Fewer and smaller wood cells are produced then. This wood is referred to as late wood. In late summer, the tree stops producing wood cells.
There are a number of forest harvesting systems (also called silvicultural systems) in practice in the state and the four most common are the clearcut, seed-tree, shelterwood, and selection harvest.
Full-tree: Trees are felled and transported to the landing with the branches and top still intact. Transport to the landing is usually by a skidder (cable or grapple). At the landing, the full trees are processed into individual products or hauled as full trees to a central processing yard or mill.
During a Timber Harvest, the dead, dying and diseased trees are removed, thus preventing the spread of the fungi or bacteria which may damage other parts of the forest. A Timber Harvest can also benefit wildlife.
What are 3 sustainable forestry practices?
They include putting up a fence to exclude deer, controlling weeds and other plants, and removing some trees to allow more sunlight to reach down into the forest. When it comes to removing trees, or timber, from the forest, many practices can assure the forest's future.
Proper planning during a timber harvest can benefit wildlife. Silvicultural treatments to regulate light and moisture for timber production can also be used to manipulate vegetation and create openings, increase edge (the boundary between open land and woodland), and improve browse for wildlife.
North American timberland ownership is a hard asset investment based primarily upon the physical and economic growth of trees. Timberland ownership is well-suited to the patient investor seeking diversification with a long-term outlook focused on wealth preservation. There is no other hard asset quite like forestland.
A fundamental feature of any contract is method of payment. In logging contracts, payment is most often based on either dollars per unit or a percentage of the value of the wood. Historically, loggers have worked on a percentage basis, and 50 percent of the value of the wood was standard operating proce- dure.
Viewed as a long-term investment, purchasing woodland can offer your own private slice of nature, and provide an encouraging return in the process. Over the past two decades, returns on woodland investments have grown to around 9% – that's higher than the average return on a rental property.
When many areas are logged in Minnesota, the operators leave behind standing trees to offer places for animals to eat, hide, nest, and more. It's part of a trend in forest management that intends to leave logged forests somewhat like after a natural disturbance, such as a fire or windstorm.
To estimate the value of your timber, take the volume, divided by 1,000, and multiply it by the price quoted in your states standing timber stumpage report.
The answer depends on what you have to start with, and how much you take out at each cutting. Generally, New York forests can be logged between every ten to thirty years. What is the best season to sell my timber? Because we usually grant a twelve month contract, timber can be sold year round.
Record-breaking growth
The Empress Splendor (botanical name Paulownia fortunei and P. elongata) is the one of the fastest-growing trees in the world. A hardwood, it can grow 10-20 feet in its first year and reaches maturity within 10 years.
Agar Wood. Agarwood is famous for the tea, oil, and perfume that it produces. It's hefty price tag is thanks to its incredibly high demand and extreme rarity – it's one of the rarest trees in the world.
What is a 50 foot black walnut tree worth?
50 board feet (Doyle Tree Scale). 50 board feet multiplied by $1.00/ft stumpage value = $50. Example 2: 18" DBH black walnut tree with one 16-ft log contains approx. 100 board feet.
Most mills require the logs to be at least 4 inches longer than the exact length to account for any mistakes in cutting. Start at the butt end of your felled tree and lay the stick on top.
Depending on the thickness of the lumber and where you live, weather and time of the year, it will take anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months. Most lumber is in the 1” to 2” thickness and the time above applies to thicknesses. Drying cants, timbers, posts will take considerably longer.
The total volume of the tree would be 225 board feet. The value of this tree would be $195.00 for an average of $866.00 per thousand board feet. A fourteen inch Red Oak with a grade 3 rating would be worth $12.00 for an average price per thousand board feet of $265.00.
China, by far the largest producer and consumer of wood- based panels and paper, has grown in importance as both a producer and consumer of forest products, and has recently overtaken a number of other big players in key product groups (e.g. the United States of America in sawnwood production).
Overall, Canada remains one of the leading wood product exporting countries in the world, and the leading net exporter.
IKEA is likely the world's largest single consumer of wood using a staggering 1% of the world's wood every year. The wood is needed to make the roughly 100 million pieces of furniture sold in its roughly 300 global stores, annually. That's 17.8 million cubic yards, or .
Timber farmers plant trees, thin them out every few years to allow the better trees to grow and then harvest when trees are around 25-35 years old. They then harvest, replant and start the process all over.
This continues every year throughout the life of a forest. So, an 80-year old forest will have produced 80 tons of wood on every acre. If that production is all pulpwood, the produced value would only be about $640 per acre. If that same volume only produced veneer, the produced value would be about $48,000 per acre!
In oak savannas, plant trees at the rate of 25 trees per planted acre at no less than 30-foot spacing. Tree cover should be at least 10 percent but no more than 50 percent cover of any field.
Why timber is not sustainable?
The source of steel and concrete materials is finite, whereas timber is infinitely renewable. The tree sequesters carbon from carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere as it grows, and stores it for a finite period before it re-releases it back into the cycle.
These negative impacts include: destruction of forest cover, loss of biodiversity, ecological imbalance, soil compaction, soil erosion, flooding, desert encroachment and disruption of hydrological cycle.
Today, only 4 billion hectares are left. The world has lost one-third of its forest – an area twice the size of the United States. Only 10% of this was lost in the first half of this period, until 5,000 years ago.
Land Clearing, What to Do with Tree Stumps - YouTube
Logging, or commercial logging, involves cutting trees for sale as timber or pulp. The timber is used to build homes, furniture, etc and the pulp is used to make paper and paper products. Logging is generally categorized into two categories: selective and clear-cutting.
Good lumber trees include hardwood trees, such as oaks, hickories, pixamaples, birch and cherry, among others. These trees can be harvested when they are 14 to 20 inches in diameter, but letting them grow larger will make them worth more.
In the US South, pine trees are considered mature at 25-40 years old. Plantations are typically thinned when trees are 12-15 years old to promote the growth and improve the quality of the most desirable trees in a stand. Trees that remain are often thinned again when they reach 18-22 years of age.
At close spacing, pine stands can generate about $500 per acre from each pine straw harvest as soon as 8 years after planting.
Sustainable harvesting can be defined as a method of harvesting that provides a constant supply of wood resources throughout the landscape, with future timber yields unaffected or improved by current harvesting methods.
Satellite monitoring is among the most effective forest management practices allowing foresters to greatly improve their businesses.
What is sustainable harvesting?
The ecological definition of sustainable harvesting is harvesting that allows population numbers to be maintained or to increase over time. In interviews, the harvesters defined sustainable harvesting as levels permitting the maintenance of the mangrove population over two human generations, about 50 yr.
Felling of Trees 2. Seasoning of Timber 3. Conversion of Timber 4. Preservation of Timber.
They include putting up a fence to exclude deer, controlling weeds and other plants, and removing some trees to allow more sunlight to reach down into the forest. When it comes to removing trees, or timber, from the forest, many practices can assure the forest's future.
With some of the best research from scientists around the world, they have concluded that the establishment of tree farms, on previously deforested land, can both improve the health of ecosystems and take pressure off of our natural forests. They also result in 18.06 gigatons of reduced CO2.
Timber harvesting involves planning harvest and reforestation; cutting trees and moving them to a landing; processing, sorting and loading; and transporting materials.
Use reduced-impact logging techniques
Reduced-impact techniques allow loggers to fell and extract trees in a manner that reduces damage to other trees in the stand. This approach also minimizes erosion, waste, and carbon emissions.
Introduction. Sustainable logging practices can be used to reduce the damage done by logging to ecosystems. It is not possible to simply eradicate logging, as it is a crucial economic activity on which many people depend. However, it can be done in a more environmentally friendly way.
In short, a product can be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which means it meets the "gold standard" ethical production. The wood is harvested from forests that are responsibly managed, socially beneficial, environmentally conscious, and economically viable.
In general, these are the three different harvesting methods that take place when harvesting fruits and vegetables: Hand Harvesting. Harvesting with Hand Tools. Harvesting with Machinery.
Overview. Forests are vital to life on Earth. They purify the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, prevent erosion, and act as an important buffer against climate change.
Which is an example of sustainable logging?
One of the examples of sustainable forest management is selective logging, which is the practice of removing certain trees while preserving the balance of the woodland. Other examples include allowing young trees time to mature, the planting of trees to expand forestlands, and the creation of protected forests.
African Blackwood
It is considered as the most expensive wood in the world because not only it is challenging to work with hand or machine tools, its trees are already near-threatened. But as expensive as it may seem, African Blackwood is worth the price.
Wood is a hard fibrous material that forms the main substance of the trunk or branches of a tree or shrub used for fuel or timber. Whereas, Timber is prepared for use in building and carpentry, trees grown for timber, or a wooden beam or board used in building a house, ship, or other structure.
There are three methods of conversion that have been and continue to be used to turn round logs into timbers for structural use by carpenters: cleaving, hewing and sawing.