Massachusetts timber prices
What your standing timber is worth in Massachusetts — 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 Massachusetts — what a landowner is paid for timber standing on the stump, before it is cut. The most recent published figure for sugar maple is $200–$338 per thousand board feet, reported by UMass Amherst MassWoods, with Massachusetts DCR 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 184 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts 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 sugar maple in Massachusetts is $200–$338 per thousand board feet, reported by UMass Amherst MassWoods, with Massachusetts DCR 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.
Massachusetts stumpage prices by species
UMass Amherst MassWoods, with Massachusetts DCR, Q1 2026
| Timber | per thousand board feet |
|---|---|
| Red oak | $200–$300 |
| White oak | $275–$300 |
| Sugar maple | $200–$338 |
| White ash | $200–$300 |
| White pine | $58–$95 |
| Hemlock | $30–$55 |
| Timber | per cord |
|---|---|
| Fuelwoodpulp | $10–$11 |
Source: UMass Amherst MassWoods, with Massachusetts DCR, Q1 2026. These are stumpage prices — what a landowner is paid for standing timber.
What is an acre of timber worth in Massachusetts?
At these prices, one mature, normally stocked acre of mostly large trees, sold in one harvest, works out to roughly $590 to $1,010 for pine and other softwood and $2,000 to $3,990 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 Massachusetts?
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 Massachusetts the best sawtimber on this page tops out at $338 while pulpwood tops out at $11 — 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 Massachusetts'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 Massachusetts timber is measured
Massachusetts 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 cord. Never compare a figure in one unit against a figure in another — they are not the same measurement of wood.
How much forest Massachusetts has, and who owns it
Massachusetts has 2.87 million acres of timberland. 1.3 million acres nonindustrial private, across 23,046 owners.
The wood itself: Oak/hickory (34.6%), maple/beech/birch, white pine. Species is one of the three things that decide what your acre is worth, and it is the one you cannot change.
A Massachusetts town cannot zone your timber harvest out of existence — state law bars municipalities from prohibiting, unreasonably regulating, or requiring a special permit for commercial silviculture on parcels of five acres or more.
Sources: fs.usda.gov · malegislature.gov
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Massachusetts?
Massachusetts is a permit state. If you sell more than 25,000 board feet or 50 cords off one parcel at one time, a Forest Cutting Plan must be filed and approved by the local Service Forester before any cutting starts.
Below that threshold, and for non-commercial cutting by the landowner, no plan is needed — but abutters must be notified on filed plans.
Source: mass.gov
Property tax on Massachusetts timberland
Your woods are taxed on their productive value for growing trees instead of development value, in exchange for a forest management plan renewed every ten years.
Two things to check before you apply: it takes 10 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: mass.gov
What the Massachusetts DCR Service Forestry will do for you, free
A free woods walk of your property with your Service Forester, who will talk through your goals, check whether you qualify for Chapter 61 or cost-share, and help you find a consulting forester.
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: mass.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 184 Massachusetts 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.
184 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts
What are timber prices in Massachusetts right now?
UMass Amherst MassWoods, with Massachusetts DCR reports sugar maple at $200–$338 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 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts?
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 Massachusetts'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 Massachusetts?
Massachusetts is a permit state. If you sell more than 25,000 board feet or 50 cords off one parcel at one time, a Forest Cutting Plan must be filed and approved by the local Service Forester before any cutting starts. Below that threshold, and for non-commercial cutting by the landowner, no plan is needed — but abutters must be notified on filed plans.
Is there a property tax break for timberland in Massachusetts?
Massachusetts runs Chapter 61 forest land classification. Your woods are taxed on their productive value for growing trees instead of development value, in exchange for a forest management plan renewed every ten years. It takes 10 contiguous acres. A written forest management plan is required.
Who can help me manage my timber in Massachusetts for free?
The Massachusetts DCR Service Forestry. A free woods walk of your property with your Service Forester, who will talk through your goals, check whether you qualify for Chapter 61 or cost-share, and help you find a consulting forester.
How do I get the best price for my timber in Massachusetts?
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 184 Massachusetts businesses, free and complete, and has not vetted or endorsed any of them.