Colorado timber prices
What your standing timber is worth in Colorado — published stumpage values by species, and a free calculator that turns them into a figure for your own land.
Quick answer
These are stumpage prices for Colorado — what a landowner is paid for timber standing on the stump, before it is cut. The most recent published figure for engelmann spruce, lodgepole and mixed conifer sawtimber is $5–$8.2 per hundred cubic feet, reported by USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region for 2025. Delivered or mill log prices are a different and much higher number, because they include the cost of cutting and hauling the wood. TimberClear lists 153 Colorado foresters, buyers, loggers and mills who work this timber. What a particular stand brings is settled by a timber cruise, not by a price list.
If you own woodland in Colorado and you are wondering what it is worth, the number you want is the stumpage price — what a buyer pays you for timber while it is still standing. The most recent published figure for engelmann spruce, lodgepole and mixed conifer sawtimber in Colorado is $5–$8.2 per hundred cubic feet, reported by USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region for 2025. The full table is below.
Two prices get quoted in this business and they are not the same. Stumpage is what reaches you. Delivered, sometimes called the mill or log price, is what a mill pays once the wood has been cut, limbed and hauled to the yard — and the difference between them is the cost of doing all that work. Delivered prices are easier to find online, they are a good deal higher, and a landowner who mistakes one for the other walks into a sale expecting money that was never on the table. Everything on this page is stumpage.
One thing to know before you read the table. No agency publishes a Colorado price series. These are the appraised minimum stumpage rates from two actual 2025 national forest sales in Colorado.
Colorado stumpage prices by species
USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region, 2025
| Timber | per hundred cubic feet |
|---|---|
| Engelmann spruce, lodgepole and mixed conifer sawtimber | $5–$8.2 |
Source: USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region, 2025. These are stumpage prices — what a landowner is paid for standing timber.
What is an acre of timber worth in Colorado?
At these prices, one mature, normally stocked acre of mostly large trees, sold in one harvest, works out to roughly $240 to $390 for pine and other softwood. Smaller trees, a thinner stand or a partial cut bring less. It's a ballpark, not an appraisal.
What is your timber worth?
The table above is the price. The calculator turns it into a figure for your land — it asks your acreage, your species, how big the trees are and how thick they stand, then works the estimate from the prices above. About a minute, and no email needed to see it.
What are my trees worth in Colorado?
A price list cannot answer that on its own, and any site that tells you otherwise is guessing. Three things decide what an acre brings, and only you can see them: how big the trees are, how thickly they are growing, and what species they are.
Our free timber value calculator asks those three questions and works an estimate from Colorado's own published prices, the ones in the table on this page. It gives you a range rather than a single figure, because a range is the honest shape of the answer. It takes about a minute and it does not ask for your email to show you the number.
Is a timber sale realistic in Colorado?
Colorado's timber market is small and much of the volume is beetle-kill salvage and fuels-reduction work, which prices near the floor.
None of that means your trees are worthless. It means the sale is found rather than looked up — you want somebody who already works your area and knows where the wood goes. Tell us about your tract and we will go looking, and we track where the requests come from so we know which state to build out next.
How much forest Colorado has, and who owns it
Colorado has about 24 million acres of forest. Roughly 186,000 private landowners control 30% — about 7.1 million acres.
The wood itself: Ten recognised forest types including lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, spruce-fir, piñon-juniper and aspen. Species is one of the three things that decide what your acre is worth, and it is the one you cannot change.
Colorado is one of the few states where the forestry agency itself gates the tax break — you cannot get the agricultural valuation on forest land without a Forest Stewardship Plan the Colorado State Forest Service has reviewed and approved.
Sources: csfs.colostate.edu · csfs.colostate.edu
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Colorado?
Colorado has no forest practices act — no state permit and no state notification to harvest on your own land, and its forestry best management practices are voluntary.
Specific activities can still need permits: a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit for stream crossings, and state licensing for pesticide application. County land-use codes in the mountain counties may regulate tree removal independently.
To be straight with you about how we know that: we looked and found no statewide requirement, which is not quite the same as confirming there is none. County ordinances and local road rules exist that no search of state law turns up. One call to the Colorado State Forest Service settles it before you cut.
Source: csfs.colostate.edu
Forest Agriculture Program: what Colorado charges to hold woodland
Forest land in the program is taxed at the same favourable valuation as traditional agricultural land instead of at residential or vacant-land rates.
Two things to check before you apply: it takes 40 contiguous forested acres, and a written forest management plan is required. Programmes like this usually carry a claw-back — take the land out of forest use early and the state wants the deferred tax back — so read the terms before you sign rather than after you have cut.
Source: csfs.colostate.edu
What the Colorado State Forest Service will do for you, free
Foresters assess properties for wildfire risk, tree pests and overall forest health, and will work with you to develop a management plan. Note that the Service publishes a fee schedule, so not everything is free.
Worth taking. A state service forester does not bid on your timber and does not take a commission, so the advice comes without a stake in the outcome. They will not run your sale for you — that is a consulting forester's job — but they will tell you what you have before anybody makes you an offer.
Source: csfs.colostate.edu
Getting the best price for your timber
In a market this thin the first job is not squeezing the price, it is finding somebody who will come and cut at all. Haul distance decides most of it: wood that has to travel a long way to a mill loses its value on the truck, so an operator already working near you is worth more than a better price quoted from three counties over.
Before any of that, have the timber cruised. A cruise is a forester walking your land and measuring what is actually standing, so you are selling a known quantity instead of taking somebody's word for it.
Ask how the wood will be measured and how you will be able to check it. Whatever the unit, a sale you cannot verify afterwards is a sale you are taking on trust.
And put the terms in writing before anybody starts: what gets cut, what stays, what the land looks like when they leave, and when you get paid.
TimberClear lists 153 Colorado foresters, buyers, loggers and mills. Every listing is free and complete, including the phone number the business already publishes. We have not vetted, verified or endorsed any of them — the listing tells you who they are and what counties they cover, and the choosing is yours.
153 Colorado timber businesses
Foresters, buyers, loggers and mills, with the counties each one covers. Free and complete.
Compare states side by side
Pick any states and see their prices next to each other.
Timber price questions in Colorado
What are timber prices in Colorado right now?
USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region reports engelmann spruce, lodgepole and mixed conifer sawtimber at $5–$8.2 per hundred cubic feet for 2025. That is a stumpage price — what the landowner receives for standing timber. Prices for the other products in Colorado are listed on this page, and they move every quarter.
What is stumpage value?
Stumpage is the price paid for timber while it is still standing — the money that reaches the landowner. It is not the same as a delivered or mill log price, which is what a mill pays once the wood has been cut, limbed and hauled to the yard. The gap between the two is the cost of doing that work, and it is large. A delivered price quoted as though it were stumpage will make timber look worth far more than it is.
How much is an acre of timber worth in Colorado?
It depends on three things the price list cannot tell you: how big the trees are, how thickly they are growing, and whether they are sawtimber or pulpwood size. Sawtimber is worth several times what pulpwood is worth per ton. TimberClear's free timber value calculator asks those questions and works the estimate from Colorado's own published prices. It gives a range, never a single figure, because only a cruise settles what a stand is really worth.
Does Colorado publish its own timber prices?
No agency publishes a Colorado price series. These are the appraised minimum stumpage rates from two actual 2025 national forest sales in Colorado.
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Colorado?
Colorado has no forest practices act — no state permit and no state notification to harvest on your own land, and its forestry best management practices are voluntary. Specific activities can still need permits: a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit for stream crossings, and state licensing for pesticide application. County land-use codes in the mountain counties may regulate tree removal independently. We found no statewide requirement, which is not the same as confirming there is none — county ordinances exist that a search of state law does not turn up, so check locally before you cut.
Is there a property tax break for timberland in Colorado?
Colorado runs Forest Agriculture Program. Forest land in the program is taxed at the same favourable valuation as traditional agricultural land instead of at residential or vacant-land rates. It takes 40 contiguous forested acres. A written forest management plan is required.
Who can help me manage my timber in Colorado for free?
The Colorado State Forest Service. Foresters assess properties for wildfire risk, tree pests and overall forest health, and will work with you to develop a management plan. Note that the Service publishes a fee schedule, so not everything is free.
How do I get the best price for my timber in Colorado?
Get more than one offer. A sealed-bid sale run by a consulting forester puts buyers in competition with each other, and that is the single biggest lever a landowner has. Have the timber cruised first so you know what you are selling, and put the terms in writing before anybody starts cutting. TimberClear lists 153 Colorado businesses, free and complete, and has not vetted or endorsed any of them.