Michigan timber prices
What your standing timber is worth in Michigan — 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 Michigan — what a landowner is paid for timber standing on the stump, before it is cut. The most recent published figure for hard maple is $348 per thousand board feet, reported by Michigan DNR stumpage price report for October 2024 – September 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 314 Michigan 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 Michigan 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 hard maple in Michigan is $348 per thousand board feet, reported by Michigan DNR stumpage price report for October 2024 – September 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.
Michigan stumpage prices by species
Michigan DNR stumpage price report, October 2024 – September 2025
| Timber | per thousand board feet |
|---|---|
| Red oak | $220 |
| White oak | $136 |
| Hard maple | $348 |
| Red pine | $153 |
| Aspen | $120 |
Source: Michigan DNR stumpage price report, October 2024 – September 2025. These are stumpage prices — what a landowner is paid for standing timber.
What is an acre of timber worth in Michigan?
At these prices, one mature, normally stocked acre of mostly large trees, sold in one harvest, works out to roughly $1,160 to $2,310 for pine and other softwood and $1,560 to $3,120 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 Michigan?
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 Michigan'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 much forest Michigan has, and who owns it
Michigan has 19.3 million acres of timberland. Most forest land is privately owned by families and individuals — 10.6 million acres across 185,698 owners.
The wood itself: Maple/beech/birch predominates, then oak/hickory and aspen/birch. Species is one of the three things that decide what your acre is worth, and it is the one you cannot change.
Michigan's Commercial Forest deal is public access for cheap taxes — more than 2.2 million acres of enrolled private land are legally open to the public on foot for hunting, trapping and fishing in exchange for the reduced rate.
Sources: fs.usda.gov · michigan.gov
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Michigan?
Michigan has no statewide permit or notification requirement for a private landowner harvesting on their own land. The only pre-harvest notice duties attach to land enrolled in a tax program.
Commercial Forest land requires written notice to the state 10 days before any removal of forest products, and Qualified Forest Program land must be reported after a harvest. Townships and counties can still adopt their own ordinances.
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 Michigan DNR Forest Resources Division, with MDARD conservation district foresters settles it before you cut.
Source: michigan.gov
Property tax on Michigan timberland
The Qualified Forest Program exempts your forest from the local school operating millage in return for a forester-written plan. Commercial Forest instead sets a flat specific tax per acre — but requires you to keep the land open to public foot access for hunting, trapping and fishing.
Two things to check before you apply: it takes 20 acres for the Qualified Forest Program, 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: michigan.gov
Free help from Michigan's state forestry agency
The Michigan DNR Forest Resources Division, with MDARD conservation district foresters. Free conservation district forester help — site visits, referrals for silvicultural practices and assistance with Qualified Forest Program applications — plus the Forest Stewardship Program and a directory of state-registered foresters.
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: michigan.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 314 Michigan 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.
314 Michigan 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 Michigan
What are timber prices in Michigan right now?
Michigan DNR stumpage price report reports hard maple at $348 per thousand board feet for October 2024 – September 2025. That is a stumpage price — what the landowner receives for standing timber. Prices for the other products in Michigan 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 Michigan?
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 Michigan'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 Michigan?
Michigan has no statewide permit or notification requirement for a private landowner harvesting on their own land. The only pre-harvest notice duties attach to land enrolled in a tax program. Commercial Forest land requires written notice to the state 10 days before any removal of forest products, and Qualified Forest Program land must be reported after a harvest. Townships and counties can still adopt their own ordinances. 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 Michigan?
Michigan runs Qualified Forest Program, or the Commercial Forest program. The Qualified Forest Program exempts your forest from the local school operating millage in return for a forester-written plan. Commercial Forest instead sets a flat specific tax per acre — but requires you to keep the land open to public foot access for hunting, trapping and fishing. It takes 20 acres for the Qualified Forest Program. A written forest management plan is required.
Who can help me manage my timber in Michigan for free?
The Michigan DNR Forest Resources Division, with MDARD conservation district foresters. Free conservation district forester help — site visits, referrals for silvicultural practices and assistance with Qualified Forest Program applications — plus the Forest Stewardship Program and a directory of state-registered foresters.
How do I get the best price for my timber in Michigan?
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 314 Michigan businesses, free and complete, and has not vetted or endorsed any of them.