Overview:
As your consulting forester, I will mark or inventory your timber. After developing a timber sales prospectus, I will begin marketing your sale. With a thorough knowledge of the timber market and its players, I will bring in the most competitive bidders. This will assure you of getting the best price possible for your timber. I will handle all of the components of your sale including showing the timber, conducting a bid opening, preparing and executing a sale contract, and provide oversight of the harvesting operation. Basically, I will handle your timber sale from start to finish.
Objectives:
During the last 25 years as a forester assisting private landowners, I have observed the vast majority of landowners sell timber only once or twice during their lifetimes. Therefore, when it comes time to sell your timber, your objectives should be of the highest priority. As I am also a private forest owner, my objectives, as well as the objectives of most of the landowners I meet, are: (1) to receive the highest possible price for the timber when it come time to sell (2) to select the appropriate trees to harvest so the quality and productivity of the remaining forest is enhanced (3) to ensure young premature desirable trees are protected from harvest and damage (4) to consider the wildlife, aesthetic, and recreational values of the forest when selecting the trees for harvest. All of these objectives can be accomplished if the timber trees are carefully selected and marked properly.
Timber Tree Selection:
When selecting which trees to mark for sale, the following criteria are used.
- Physiologically mature (trees that are wind damaged, lightning damaged, drought damaged, insect damaged, damaged by livestock or wildfire, defective, diseased, and dying.)
- Economically mature (trees that are low in vigor and currently yielding a very low financial rate of return.)
- Low valued trees and trees that are strongly competing with high valued more desirable trees.
- Trees that will be knocked over or severely damaged during the harvest operation.
Through my experience, I can identify which trees should be harvested and, just as important, which trees need to be left for the future. As a general rule, a commercial harvest is the best time to remove the undesirable species, low quality trees, and over mature trees in order to improve the overall health and quality of your woodlands. Of course, in order to sell the lesser trees you must include desirable high quality trees in the sale. This is where good judgment from an experienced consulting forester is invaluable.
Marketing Your Sale:
There are two ways that I will sell timber; sealed bid or negotiated. Under normal situations I will sell by sealed bid. With this type of sale, I will contact many potential bidders in order to develop a competitive nature to the sale. I will hold a public bid opening at which point, I will open all bids. If the landowner is satisfied with the high bid, the bid will be accepted and a contract will be signed within a few days. Full payment for the timber will required before harvesting begins. In situations when timber is of very low quality, low volume, or unique in some way a sealed bid process is not warranted. In this situation, I will negotiate a sale. Knowing the market thoroughly and its players, I will know who may be interested in purchasing the timber at a fair price. In both scenarios, only the marked timber is sold and full payment is received in advance of any harvesting. | 
