Hawaii timber prices
What your standing timber is worth in Hawaii — 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 Hawaii — what a landowner is paid for timber standing on the stump, before it is cut. The most recent published figure for milo is $4 per board foot, reported by Hawaii DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife for current list, effective December 2018. 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 9 Hawaii 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 Hawaii 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 milo in Hawaii is $4 per board foot, reported by Hawaii DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife for current list, effective December 2018. 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.
Hawaii stumpage prices by species
Hawaii DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife, current list, effective December 2018
| Timber | per board foot |
|---|---|
| Koa | $11 |
| Milo | $4 |
| Sugi / Japanese cedar | $3 |
| Redwood | $3 |
| Kamani | $1.75 |
| Toon | $1 |
| Ohia | $0.75 |
Source: Hawaii DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife, current list, effective December 2018. These are stumpage prices — what a landowner is paid for standing timber.
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 Hawaii?
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 Hawaii'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.
Worth knowing about the Hawaii market
Hawaii is a specialty market and koa is in a class of its own — worth many times any mainland hardwood, and priced on the individual tree rather than by the acre. A per-acre estimate is not meaningful here; an appraisal of the actual trees is.
How much forest Hawaii has, and who owns it
Hawaii has 1.8 million acres of forest land. 366,000 acres of nonindustrial private forest, held by just 1,782 owners.
The wood itself: ʻōhiʻa is the dominant native tree; koa is the high-value commercial hardwood. Species is one of the three things that decide what your acre is worth, and it is the one you cannot change.
Hawaii has only about 1,782 nonindustrial private forest landowners in the entire state — fewer than most single counties on the mainland — across 366,000 acres.
Source: apps.fs.usda.gov
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Hawaii?
Hawaii has no statewide timber-harvest permit for private land as such. What controls is where the land sits — a parcel in the State Land Use Conservation District needs a Board of Land and Natural Resources permit and an approved management plan before any commercial forestry.
The state's forest reserve harvest permits apply only to state land, and the four counties add their own tree, grading and grubbing ordinances on top.
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 Hawaiʻi DLNR, Division of Forestry and Wildlife settles it before you cut.
Source: law.cornell.edu
Free help from Hawaii's state forestry agency
The Hawaiʻi DLNR, Division of Forestry and Wildlife. Free technical support through the Forest Stewardship Program, plus 75% cost-share toward writing a 10-year management plan and up to 50% toward carrying it out, with a 5-acre minimum. Staff will not write the plan for you.
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: dlnr.hawaii.gov
Getting the best price for your timber
The single biggest lever is competition. One buyer who turns up and makes an offer has no reason to bid against himself. A sealed-bid sale, run by a consulting forester who invites several buyers to price the same marked timber, routinely moves the final number by a wide margin — and it costs you a share of the sale rather than money up front.
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 9 Hawaii 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.
9 Hawaii 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 Hawaii
What are timber prices in Hawaii right now?
Hawaii DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife reports milo at $4 per board foot for current list, effective December 2018. That is a stumpage price — what the landowner receives for standing timber. Prices for the other products in Hawaii 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 Hawaii?
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 Hawaii's own published prices. It gives a range, never a single figure, because only a cruise settles what a stand is really worth.
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Hawaii?
Hawaii has no statewide timber-harvest permit for private land as such. What controls is where the land sits — a parcel in the State Land Use Conservation District needs a Board of Land and Natural Resources permit and an approved management plan before any commercial forestry. The state's forest reserve harvest permits apply only to state land, and the four counties add their own tree, grading and grubbing ordinances on top. 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.
Who can help me manage my timber in Hawaii for free?
The Hawaiʻi DLNR, Division of Forestry and Wildlife. Free technical support through the Forest Stewardship Program, plus 75% cost-share toward writing a 10-year management plan and up to 50% toward carrying it out, with a 5-acre minimum. Staff will not write the plan for you.
How do I get the best price for my timber in Hawaii?
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 9 Hawaii businesses, free and complete, and has not vetted or endorsed any of them.