New Mexico timber prices
What your standing timber is worth in New Mexico — 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 Mexico — what a landowner is paid for timber standing on the stump, before it is cut. The most recent published figure for ponderosa pine and mixed conifer sawtimber is $5–$23.49 per hundred cubic feet, reported by USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region for 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 23 New Mexico 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 Mexico 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 ponderosa pine and mixed conifer sawtimber in New Mexico is $5–$23.49 per hundred cubic feet, reported by USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region for 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.
One thing to know before you read the table. No agency publishes a New Mexico stumpage price. These are the appraised standing-timber rates from recent western federal ponderosa pine sales.
New Mexico stumpage prices by species
USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region, 2025
| Timber | per hundred cubic feet |
|---|---|
| Ponderosa pine and mixed conifer sawtimber | $5–$23.49 |
Source: USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region, 2025. These are stumpage prices — what a landowner is paid for standing timber.
What is an acre of timber worth in New Mexico?
At these prices, one mature, normally stocked acre of mostly large trees, sold in one harvest, works out to roughly $170 to $790 for pine and other softwood. 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 Mexico?
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 Mexico'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.
Is a timber sale realistic in New Mexico?
New Mexico has more private and tribal harvest than Arizona does — about 41% of the state's timber comes off private and tribal land — but no published price series, so competing bids are how a landowner finds the number.
None of that means your trees are worthless. It means the sale is found rather than looked up — you want somebody who already works your area and knows where the wood goes. Tell us about your tract and we will go looking, and we track where the requests come from so we know which state to build out next.
How much forest New Mexico has, and who owns it
New Mexico has 24.6 million acres of forest land. About 11 million acres nonindustrial private — roughly 45% of the state's forest.
The wood itself: Ponderosa pine, piñon pine, Douglas-fir and white fir. Species is one of the three things that decide what your acre is worth, and it is the one you cannot change.
Even when a New Mexico harvest is small enough to be exempt from the permit, the owner must still tell the Forestry Division within 48 hours of starting or finishing — so there is effectively no timber harvest in New Mexico the state never hears about.
Sources: apps.fs.usda.gov · emnrd.nm.gov
Do I need a permit to cut timber in New Mexico?
New Mexico is one of the few interior-West states with a real harvest permit. A private landowner wanting to commercially harvest 25 acres or more in a calendar year must get a harvest permit from the state Forestry Division before cutting.
Under 25 acres you usually need no permit, but you must still inform the Forestry Division no later than 48 hours after major harvest activity begins or finishes. The permit application goes in at least 30 days before the harvest starts.
Source: emnrd.nm.gov
Property tax on New Mexico timberland
Land grown for trees and forest products can be valued as agricultural land rather than at market value, which sharply lowers the assessed value. There is no forest-only program.
Source: law.justia.com
What the New Mexico State Forestry will do for you, free
Technical assistance through six district offices covering all 33 counties — help developing resource management plans, insect and disease identification, and help finding project funding. It also runs Forest Stewardship and Tree Farm programs and sells low-cost seedlings.
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: emnrd.nm.gov
Getting the best price for your timber
In a market this thin the first job is not squeezing the price, it is finding somebody who will come and cut at all. Haul distance decides most of it: wood that has to travel a long way to a mill loses its value on the truck, so an operator already working near you is worth more than a better price quoted from three counties over.
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 23 New Mexico 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.
23 New Mexico 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 Mexico
What are timber prices in New Mexico right now?
USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region reports ponderosa pine and mixed conifer sawtimber at $5–$23.49 per hundred cubic feet for 2025. That is a stumpage price — what the landowner receives for standing timber. Prices for the other products in New Mexico 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 Mexico?
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 Mexico'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 Mexico publish its own timber prices?
No agency publishes a New Mexico stumpage price. These are the appraised standing-timber rates from recent western federal ponderosa pine sales.
Do I need a permit to cut timber in New Mexico?
New Mexico is one of the few interior-West states with a real harvest permit. A private landowner wanting to commercially harvest 25 acres or more in a calendar year must get a harvest permit from the state Forestry Division before cutting. Under 25 acres you usually need no permit, but you must still inform the Forestry Division no later than 48 hours after major harvest activity begins or finishes. The permit application goes in at least 30 days before the harvest starts.
Is there a property tax break for timberland in New Mexico?
New Mexico runs Special Method of Valuation for agricultural land. Land grown for trees and forest products can be valued as agricultural land rather than at market value, which sharply lowers the assessed value. There is no forest-only program.
Who can help me manage my timber in New Mexico for free?
The New Mexico State Forestry. Technical assistance through six district offices covering all 33 counties — help developing resource management plans, insect and disease identification, and help finding project funding. It also runs Forest Stewardship and Tree Farm programs and sells low-cost seedlings.
How do I get the best price for my timber in New Mexico?
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 23 New Mexico businesses, free and complete, and has not vetted or endorsed any of them.