Since early March of 2021, we began witnessing a resurgence in interest/demand for hardwood timber sales in our operating area. What was beaten down by COVID and its related effects, started to show signs of life as both export and domestic markets began to recover. Mills still suffered from supply chain issues early on, and the labor and transportation shortages have never really gone away.
As demand for hardwoods increased, so did the call for us to help our clients sell timber. Though there were periods where bidding hiccupped a bit, successful (and very robustly successful) sales increased as the year went along. It has been the first time in many years where we’ve seen such a variety of species increase in demand/price all at the same time.
It’s been a while since we’ve illustrated the results of our timber sales – frankly – we’ve been so busy selling timber and working on a variety of forest management services for our clients that it’s been tough putting these blog posts together. I’ll offer up many apologies for that, though that’s not a great excuse – anyway, we just wanted to bring you up-to-date by showing you just a few examples of the continuous batch of timber sales we are putting out for bid. Here are three more recent sale results showing current market activity:
Timber Sale A
A recent timber sale (“Timber Sale A”) in northwestern PA shows the results of a relatively small sale containing a good mix of red oak and soft maple; two species that performed very well this past year. FORECON cruised and marked this 60-acre wood lot, resulting in a sale of approximately 115,000 board feet (Doyle Log Rule), having most of the volume in red oak (47,000 bf), followed closely by soft maple (45,000 bf) and black cherry (7.000 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:
There was good bid participation in this sale, with six different bidders responding. The high bid was 2.5 times higher than the low bid, with 3 bids below the average and 3 above. It was estimated that the white oak came in at about $1,425/MBF; soft maple about $640/MBF; and black cherry about $997/MBF (Doyle).
Timber Sale B
Another sale of note (“Timber Sale B”) in northwestern Pennsylvania also shows a decent demand for quality hardwoods on a relatively small acreage. FORECON cruised and marked this timber sale, an offering which contained about 110,000 board feet (Doyle Log Rule), with a good mix of red oak (24,000 bf), black cherry (22,000 bf), white ash (16,000 bf), hard maple (14,000 bf), soft maple (12,000 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:
This sale had 3 bidders participate, and the high bid was 1.9 times higher than the lowest bid, with 2 bids above the average, and 1 bid below. It was estimated that the red oak sold for about $1,005/MBF, black cherry about $1,150/MBF, white ash about $290/MBF, hard maple also about $1,005/MBF, and soft maple about $500/MBF.
Timber Sale C
This third sale (“Timber Sale C”), located in southwestern New York, shows terrific and competitive demand as well for quality hardwoods, also on a small acreage. FORECON cruised and marked this timber sale, an offering which contained about 80,000 board feet (Doyle Log Rule) and had mostly tulip poplar (33,000 bf), followed by sugar maple (22,000 bf), hemlock (9,000 bf), hickory (6,000 bf), and black cherry (5,000 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:
This sale had four bidders participate, and the high bid was only 1.1 times higher than the lowest bid, with 2 bids above the average, and 2 bids below. It was estimated that the tulip poplar brought about $580/MBF (Doyle); sugar maple about $870/MBF; hemlock about $70/MBF, hickory about $360/MBF, and black cherry about $1,160/MBF.
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 understand that, despite these very busy times, we will do our best to accommodate your needs as soon as we can. As always, thanks for your patience!
