Based on your post, I am concerned about the harvest proposal recently received for my woods, stating 4-5 trees per acre, taking a mix of 15 White Oak, 15 Hickory, 10 Soft Maple, 10 Pin Oad, 5 Red Oak and 5 Popular. The proposal states the value to be $2,500.00 to $3,500.00. Do you think they are trying to take an advantage?

Hi B:

$2500-3500 for your 60 trees is the equivalent to an average price of $41-58 per tree. Let's for sake of argument say each tree has a minimum of 200 board feet (Doyle scale):

$58 per tree divided by 200 BF tree = $0.29 per BF $41 per tree divided by 200 BF tree = $0.205 per BF

I have no idea regarding the quality of these logs: are they veneer quality, high-grade saw logs, low grade pallet logs, etc.?

THEREFORE, I have no idea if they are taking advantage of you, but I do have ONE WONDERFUL SUGGESTION FOR YOU: Immediately contact a professional consulting forester and have them conduct an on-site assessment of your timber before you sign any contract with a logger!

Thank you for the good advice, the guy said he is a forester. The white oak are healthy, mature trees so I thought there would be 800 board feet minimum. For the sake of an example, no veneer at 800 BF *15 trees = 12,000 BF. Using your estimate of .60 /BF is $7200.00. Please do not use my name and location. It puts me, my family, and property at risk. Thank You.

Anybody can call themselves a forester here in Illinois and Indiana because we don't have professional forestry licensure laws like Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, etc.

My advice, get a second opinion from an independent, unbiased, professional consulting forester.