Rhode Island timber prices
What your standing timber is worth in Rhode Island — 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 Rhode Island — what a landowner is paid for timber standing on the stump, before it is cut. The most recent published figure for white oak is $300 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 22 Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island is $300 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.
One thing to know before you read the table. Rhode Island was part of this three-state survey until it stopped reporting separately. These are the eastern Massachusetts figures, the same species mix and the same mills a Rhode Island landowner sells into.
Rhode Island stumpage prices by species
UMass Amherst MassWoods, with Massachusetts DCR, Q1 2026
| Timber | per thousand board feet |
|---|---|
| Red oak | $200 |
| White oak | $300 |
| Sugar maple | $200 |
| Red maple | $30 |
| White pine | $58 |
| Hemlock | $30 |
| Timber | per cord |
|---|---|
| Fuelwoodpulp | $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 Rhode Island?
At these prices, one mature, normally stocked acre of mostly large trees, sold in one harvest, works out to roughly $420 to $830 for pine and other softwood and $1,380 to $2,760 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 Rhode Island?
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 Rhode Island the best sawtimber on this page tops out at $300 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 Rhode Island'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 Rhode Island timber is measured
Rhode Island 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.
Is a timber sale realistic in Rhode Island?
Rhode Island has a small commercial timber industry, and that matters more than the price does. Where there are few mills bidding, the practical question is whether anybody will come and cut at all.
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 Rhode Island has, and who owns it
Rhode Island has about 352,000 acres of timberland — 96% of the state's forest land. Approximately 68% privately owned and managed by an estimated 38,000 landowners.
The wood itself: Oak-hickory is 61% of the forest — red, black, scarlet and white oak; red maple is the most numerous single species at 27% of stems. Species is one of the three things that decide what your acre is worth, and it is the one you cannot change.
Rhode Island is one of the few states that licenses the logger as well as the job — cutting trees for commercial forest products requires registration as a woods operator on top of the five-day notice of intent to cut.
Sources: dem.ri.gov · web.uri.edu
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Rhode Island?
Rhode Island regulates commercial cutting. Anyone cutting trees for commercial forest products must be registered as a woods operator with the state, and a notice of intent to cut must be filed at least five days before cutting or sawing begins.
The state can shorten or waive the five-day notice. Work in forested wetlands — about 75,000 acres of the state — needs separate permission under the Freshwater Wetlands Act.
Source: webserver.rilegislature.gov
Farm, Forest and Open Space Act: what Rhode Island charges to hold woodland
Enrolled forest land is assessed at its current use rather than its development value, with the plan reviewed every five years and renewed every ten.
Two things to check before you apply: it takes 10 acres of forest land, 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: dem.ri.gov
Free help from Rhode Island's state forestry agency
The Rhode Island DEM, Division of Agriculture and Forest Environment. The Forest Stewardship Program gives access to a state Stewardship Forester, management plan templates, free workshops, and help getting into the Farm, Forest and Open Space tax program. It is explicitly not a cost-share 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: dem.ri.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 22 Rhode Island 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.
22 Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island
What are timber prices in Rhode Island right now?
UMass Amherst MassWoods, with Massachusetts DCR reports white oak at $300 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 Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island?
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 Rhode Island's own published prices. It gives a range, never a single figure, because only a cruise settles what a stand is really worth.
Does Rhode Island publish its own timber prices?
Rhode Island was part of this three-state survey until it stopped reporting separately. These are the eastern Massachusetts figures, the same species mix and the same mills a Rhode Island landowner sells into.
Do I need a permit to cut timber in Rhode Island?
Rhode Island regulates commercial cutting. Anyone cutting trees for commercial forest products must be registered as a woods operator with the state, and a notice of intent to cut must be filed at least five days before cutting or sawing begins. The state can shorten or waive the five-day notice. Work in forested wetlands — about 75,000 acres of the state — needs separate permission under the Freshwater Wetlands Act.
Is there a property tax break for timberland in Rhode Island?
Rhode Island runs Farm, Forest and Open Space Act. Enrolled forest land is assessed at its current use rather than its development value, with the plan reviewed every five years and renewed every ten. It takes 10 acres of forest land. A written forest management plan is required.
Who can help me manage my timber in Rhode Island for free?
The Rhode Island DEM, Division of Agriculture and Forest Environment. The Forest Stewardship Program gives access to a state Stewardship Forester, management plan templates, free workshops, and help getting into the Farm, Forest and Open Space tax program. It is explicitly not a cost-share program.
How do I get the best price for my timber in Rhode Island?
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 22 Rhode Island businesses, free and complete, and has not vetted or endorsed any of them.