Maryland timber prices
What your standing timber is worth in Maryland — 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 Maryland — what a landowner is paid for timber standing on the stump, before it is cut. The most recent published figure for black cherry is $255–$848 per thousand board feet, reported by Penn State Extension for Q1 2026. 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 180 Maryland 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 Maryland 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 black cherry in Maryland is $255–$848 per thousand board feet, reported by Penn State Extension for Q1 2026. 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. Maryland's own price report stopped in 2006, and University of Maryland Extension now sends landowners to Pennsylvania's. These are those prices.
Maryland stumpage prices by species
Penn State Extension, Q1 2026 · International 1/4" scale
| Timber | per thousand board feet |
|---|---|
| White oak | $677–$750 |
| Northern red oak | $456–$609 |
| Mixed oak | $309–$559 |
| Black cherry | $255–$848 |
| Yellow poplar | $235–$740 |
| Timber | per ton |
|---|---|
| Hardwood pulpwoodpulp | $2.49–$4.28 |
Source: Penn State Extension, Q1 2026. These are stumpage prices — what a landowner is paid for standing timber.
What is an acre of timber worth in Maryland?
At these prices, one mature, normally stocked acre of mostly large trees, sold in one harvest, works out to roughly $3,750 to $6,790 for hardwood. 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 Maryland?
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.
Size matters more than anything else on that list. In Maryland the best sawtimber on this page tops out at $848 while pulpwood tops out at $4.28 — the same tree, grown on, is worth several times more. That is the whole argument for knowing what you have before anybody makes you an offer.
Our free timber value calculator asks those three questions and works an estimate from Maryland'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.
How Maryland timber is measured
Maryland uses more than one unit, which trips people up. Sawtimber is priced by the thousand board feet, written MBF, and other products are priced by the ton, green weight, straight off the scales at the mill. Never compare a figure in one unit against a figure in another — they are not the same measurement of wood.
The International quarter-inch rule tracks what a log actually yields more closely than the older rules do. It reads higher than Doyle for the same tree, so never compare a price on one rule against a price on the other.
Worth knowing about the Maryland market
Maryland is really two timber markets. Western Maryland is Appalachian hardwood, which these figures fit. The Lower Eastern Shore is loblolly pine sold by the ton, and Virginia's pine figures are the closer guide there.
How much forest Maryland has, and who owns it
Maryland has 2.2 million acres of timberland. 72% of Maryland's forest land — 1.8 million acres — is privately owned.
The wood itself: Oak/hickory (60%), loblolly and shortleaf pine (15%, concentrated on the lower Eastern Shore), maple/beech/birch in the west. Species is one of the three things that decide what your acre is worth, and it is the one you cannot change.
Maryland state law deliberately stops counties from out-regulating the state on forestry, which is why the real gate on a Maryland harvest is a sediment control plan at the Soil Conservation District rather than a county logging ordinance.
Sources: dnr.maryland.gov · planning.maryland.gov
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Maryland?
Maryland does not issue a timber-harvest permit as such, but any forest harvest disturbing more than 5,000 square feet of soil needs an erosion and sediment control plan approved by the local Soil Conservation District before work starts — which in practice means almost every commercial harvest. The operator must also be a certified forest product operator.
State law caps how far counties can go: local planning and zoning restrictions on silviculture may not be more stringent than state law and regulation.
Source: planning.maryland.gov
Property tax on Maryland timberland
Enrolled forestland gets a reduced assessment, generally the agricultural rate, frozen for the life of the agreement — in return for a minimum 15-year commitment and a plan approved by a registered professional forester. Breaking it means penalty taxes for every year enrolled.
Two things to check before you apply: it takes 5 contiguous 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: dnr.maryland.gov
What the Maryland Forest Service will do for you, free
Foresters will write a Forest Stewardship Plan and give technical advice, but Maryland publishes a fee schedule rather than working free — $12 an acre for timber stand improvement marking, $40 for a planting site examination. Plan costs are often recoverable through cost-share such as the Woodland Incentive Program.
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: dnr.maryland.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.
Because Maryland timber is sold by weight, the load tickets are your receipt. Every truck that leaves is weighed at the mill, and those tickets are what your payment is calculated from. Ask to receive copies as the job runs rather than a single figure at the end — a sale you cannot check is a sale you have to take 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 180 Maryland 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.
180 Maryland 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 Maryland
What are timber prices in Maryland right now?
Penn State Extension reports black cherry at $255–$848 per thousand board feet for Q1 2026. That is a stumpage price — what the landowner receives for standing timber. Prices for the other products in Maryland 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 Maryland?
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 Maryland's own published prices. It gives a range, never a single figure, because only a cruise settles what a stand is really worth.
Does Maryland publish its own timber prices?
Maryland's own price report stopped in 2006, and University of Maryland Extension now sends landowners to Pennsylvania's. These are those prices.
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Maryland?
Maryland does not issue a timber-harvest permit as such, but any forest harvest disturbing more than 5,000 square feet of soil needs an erosion and sediment control plan approved by the local Soil Conservation District before work starts — which in practice means almost every commercial harvest. The operator must also be a certified forest product operator. State law caps how far counties can go: local planning and zoning restrictions on silviculture may not be more stringent than state law and regulation.
Is there a property tax break for timberland in Maryland?
Maryland runs Forest Conservation and Management Program. Enrolled forestland gets a reduced assessment, generally the agricultural rate, frozen for the life of the agreement — in return for a minimum 15-year commitment and a plan approved by a registered professional forester. Breaking it means penalty taxes for every year enrolled. It takes 5 contiguous acres. A written forest management plan is required.
Who can help me manage my timber in Maryland for free?
The Maryland Forest Service. Foresters will write a Forest Stewardship Plan and give technical advice, but Maryland publishes a fee schedule rather than working free — $12 an acre for timber stand improvement marking, $40 for a planting site examination. Plan costs are often recoverable through cost-share such as the Woodland Incentive Program.
How do I get the best price for my timber in Maryland?
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 180 Maryland businesses, free and complete, and has not vetted or endorsed any of them.