Timber Talk: How do you determine the amount of timber on a timberland tract? (5 of 10)

Описание: In this series of videos, Grant Massie's resident forest experts share information about timber and how to maximize timber as an investment.

TRANSCRIPT OF PART 5 OF 10:

Ned: Bill, if you own a timberland tract, how do you determine the amount of timber that's on that property?
Bill: The best way to determine the amount of timber is to have a consulting forester do a timber cruise on the property. The timber cruise estimates the volume of the timber and that basically is done by taking a statistical sample of the particular stand that you're interested in.

You take plots and measure the heights and the diameter. Then you go to the tables under a particular log rule. There are different log rules for different areas of the country that are used to determine the board footage of a particular tree. These samples are taken. Usually you do a 10 to 20% sample. Sometimes it's less, sometimes it's more.

On some occasions where you have very high quality timber, 100% sample will be taken of the tract to determine the volume of timber there. Then you can price it out based on size and species.

Once the volume is determined, either in board-feet or tonnage, there are tables--different log rules depending on the area. Those log rules are common to those particular areas and give a varied amount of timber based on how it is cut and what-have-you. This gives you the volume, then you can determine from sales in the area what different species sell for, and determine the value of it.

Ned: So you'll come up with a list of the different species on the property, the approximate volume of each species, and then from the market, what is the value of that species today?

Bill: Exactly.

Ned: And the value of the timber flucuates?

Bill: Oh yes. Definitely so. A lot of it depends on the demand for a particular type of timber or lot of times the location of the stand can increase the value of it. If you can get into it in the winter time and harvest it, it's going to have some added value--as opposed to a stand that may be in or near low grounds where it's going to be difficult to get into it in bad weather.

Ned : Is there a difference between a pine plantation where it's all basically going to be even aged because it was planted and harvested in a cycle versus a hardwood stand that probably has different-aged trees?

Bill: It's probably easier to get an estimate of volume in an even-aged stand than it is in an uneven-aged stand. A lot of it depends on the experience of the forester doing the timber evaluation or timber cruise as to selecting the proper number of samples for the particular tract of land.

END OF PART 5