New Jersey timber prices
What your standing timber is worth in New Jersey — 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 New Jersey — what a landowner is paid for timber standing on the stump, before it is cut. The most recent published figure for white oak is $637–$752 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 26 New Jersey 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 New Jersey 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 white oak in New Jersey is $637–$752 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. New Jersey publishes no timber price report. These are standing-timber prices from southeastern Pennsylvania, just across the Delaware, where the oak forests and the sawmills buying the logs are the same ones a New Jersey landowner sells into.
New Jersey stumpage prices by species
Penn State Extension, Q1 2026 · International 1/4" scale
| Timber | per thousand board feet |
|---|---|
| Northern red oak | $533–$685 |
| White oak | $637–$752 |
| Mixed oak | $430–$610 |
| Yellow poplar | $285–$374 |
| Soft maple | $251–$340 |
| Miscellaneous hardwoods | $190–$245 |
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 New Jersey?
At these prices, one mature, normally stocked acre of mostly large trees, sold in one harvest, works out to roughly $2,790 to $5,580 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 New Jersey?
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 New Jersey'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 New Jersey timber is measured
New Jersey timber is sold by the thousand board feet, written MBF.
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.
How much forest New Jersey has, and who owns it
New Jersey has 1.71 million acres of timberland. Forest land ownership is close to evenly split — 47% private, 53% public.
The wood itself: Oak/hickory (828,300 acres) and loblolly/shortleaf pine (473,800 acres) together make up 65% of forest land. Species is one of the three things that decide what your acre is worth, and it is the one you cannot change.
In the New Jersey Pinelands you can cut only one cord of wood per five acres a year — capped at five cords for the whole parcel — before you need a Pinelands Commission application, which makes routine firewood cutting a regulated activity over about a million acres of the state.
Sources: fs.usda.gov · nj.gov
Do I need a permit to cut timber in New Jersey?
New Jersey has no general statewide harvest permit for private woodland, but where you are matters more than in almost any other state. In the Pinelands Area, commercial tree harvesting above a very small threshold requires an application to the Pinelands Commission.
The Pinelands exemption covers only one cord of wood per five acres a year, capped at five cords per parcel, plus normal forestry on residentially improved parcels of five acres or less. Municipal tree-removal ordinances are common statewide.
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 New Jersey Forest Service settles it before you cut.
Source: nj.gov
Property tax on New Jersey timberland
Woodland is assessed at farmland value instead of market value if it is under an approved woodland management plan prepared by an Approved Forester and produces at least $500 a year in sales for the first five acres. Changing the use triggers rollback taxes for the current year plus the two prior years.
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: nj.gov
What the New Jersey Forest Service will do for you, free
The Forest Service reviews and approves forest stewardship and woodland management plans through its Regional Foresters, maintains the official list of New Jersey Approved Foresters you must use, and runs the Forest Stewardship Program for parcels of five acres or more.
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: nj.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 New Jersey sells by the board foot, ask which log rule any bid is written on before you compare it to another. The figures on this page are International 1/4". The same trees scaled under a different rule produce a different board-foot count, and two honest offers can look further apart, or closer together, than they really are.
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 26 New Jersey 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.
26 New Jersey 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 New Jersey
What are timber prices in New Jersey right now?
Penn State Extension reports white oak at $637–$752 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 New Jersey 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 New Jersey?
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 New Jersey's own published prices. It gives a range, never a single figure, because only a cruise settles what a stand is really worth.
Does New Jersey publish its own timber prices?
New Jersey publishes no timber price report. These are standing-timber prices from southeastern Pennsylvania, just across the Delaware, where the oak forests and the sawmills buying the logs are the same ones a New Jersey landowner sells into.
Do I need a permit to cut timber in New Jersey?
New Jersey has no general statewide harvest permit for private woodland, but where you are matters more than in almost any other state. In the Pinelands Area, commercial tree harvesting above a very small threshold requires an application to the Pinelands Commission. The Pinelands exemption covers only one cord of wood per five acres a year, capped at five cords per parcel, plus normal forestry on residentially improved parcels of five acres or less. Municipal tree-removal ordinances are common statewide. 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 New Jersey?
New Jersey runs Farmland Assessment with a Woodland Management Plan. Woodland is assessed at farmland value instead of market value if it is under an approved woodland management plan prepared by an Approved Forester and produces at least $500 a year in sales for the first five acres. Changing the use triggers rollback taxes for the current year plus the two prior years. It takes 5 contiguous acres. A written forest management plan is required.
Who can help me manage my timber in New Jersey for free?
The New Jersey Forest Service. The Forest Service reviews and approves forest stewardship and woodland management plans through its Regional Foresters, maintains the official list of New Jersey Approved Foresters you must use, and runs the Forest Stewardship Program for parcels of five acres or more.
How do I get the best price for my timber in New Jersey?
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 26 New Jersey businesses, free and complete, and has not vetted or endorsed any of them.