How much is an acre of timber worth?

Nobody can price your acre from a desk. What we can do is show what an ordinary mature acre comes to at the prices your state is publishing right now. That gives you a yardstick before the first buyer walks your land, so an offer that's far off in either direction stands out.

Each figure below is a mature stand of mostly large trees, sawtimber size, with average stocking, sold in one harvest. That's the stand most landowners are asking about. If your trees are smaller, thinner, or you're planning a partial cut, your number will be lower, and the timber value calculator will show you how much.

Value per acre, states with their own price series

"Softwood" covers pine and, in the West, Douglas-fir and the other conifers each state reports. Rounded to the nearest $10. A dash means the state's report has no price we can turn into a per-acre figure for that kind of timber without borrowing another state's numbers, so we don't show one.

States that borrow a neighbor's prices

These states don't publish a timber price series of their own. Each figure uses the nearest published market, and the state's price page says whose. Treat these as rougher still.

• Alabama: pine and softwood $1,160 to $2,310 an acre.
• Alaska: pine and softwood $1,090 to $2,170 an acre, hardwood $390 to $780 an acre.
• Arizona: pine and softwood $170 to $790 an acre.
• Colorado: pine and softwood $240 to $390 an acre.
• Connecticut: pine and softwood $590 to $1,010 an acre, hardwood $2,000 to $3,990 an acre.
• Delaware: pine and softwood $870 to $1,730 an acre, hardwood $2,410 to $4,830 an acre.
• Iowa: hardwood $1,140 to $2,270 an acre.
• Kansas: hardwood $1,140 to $2,270 an acre.
• Kentucky: hardwood $1,460 to $2,920 an acre.
• Maryland: hardwood $3,750 to $6,790 an acre.
• Nebraska: hardwood $1,140 to $2,270 an acre.
• Nevada: pine and softwood $130 to $1,590 an acre, hardwood $100 to $1,240 an acre.
• New Jersey: hardwood $2,790 to $5,580 an acre.
• New Mexico: pine and softwood $170 to $790 an acre.
• North Dakota: pine and softwood $1,060 to $2,130 an acre, hardwood $1,060 to $2,130 an acre.
• Rhode Island: pine and softwood $420 to $830 an acre, hardwood $1,380 to $2,760 an acre.
• South Dakota: pine and softwood $750 to $1,490 an acre.
• Tennessee: pine and softwood $810 to $1,610 an acre.
• Utah: pine and softwood $130 to $1,060 an acre, hardwood $100 to $830 an acre.
• Wyoming: pine and softwood $100 to $200 an acre.

How the number is worked out

Two things, multiplied. First, how much wood a mature acre holds in your part of the country. In the Southern pine belt, actual sold clearcuts run about 80 to 105 tons an acre, according to Forest2Market's sales data. In the Northeast and the hardwood states it's counted in board feet instead. Second, your state's own published price for that wood, sawtimber and pulpwood each at its own price.

That gives a figure, and a range around it, because a desk estimate can't be tighter than a real cruise and real cruises miss by more than people think. Where a state publishes its own range, we use that range instead.

What moves your acre up or down

• Tree size. Pine sawtimber can bring several times what pulpwood brings per ton. A stand that's mostly pulpwood is worth a fraction of the figures above.
• How many trees. A thick, well-stocked stand holds far more wood than an open one. A thin stand can hold less than half.
• Distance to the mill. Hauling comes out of your price before you ever see it.
• How easy it is to log. Wet ground, steep slopes, no road and a small tract all cost the logger money, and that money comes off your price.
• A few great trees. In hardwood, a handful of veneer oaks or walnuts can be worth more than the rest of the acre.

More on each of these in what affects the value of my timber, and on whether a small tract is worth selling at all in how many acres of timber is worth selling.

When you're ready for a real number, it takes somebody walking your timber. Find a consulting forester or buyer near you, or see timber prices by state for the prices behind every figure here.

Questions landowners ask

How much is an acre of timber worth?

It depends most on the size of the trees, how many there are, and your state's prices. For a mature, normally stocked pine stand sold in one harvest, the figures on this page run $1,150 to $3,160 an acre across the Southern pine states. The same acre of mostly small, pulpwood-size pine works out to about half that, and less again if the stand is thin.

Why is my acre worth less than this?

Smaller trees, fewer trees, a long haul to the mill, wet ground or a hard-to-reach tract all lower the price. The figures here assume mostly large trees and average stocking. The calculator lets you change both.

Is a selective cut worth less per acre?

Per harvest, yes. A thinning or selection cut usually removes about 35 percent of what a clearcut would, so it pays about 35 percent as much now, and leaves the rest of the stand to grow for a later sale.

Where do these numbers come from?

Each state's published stumpage prices, multiplied by a sourced figure for how much wood a mature acre holds in that part of the country. It is the same arithmetic our timber value calculator uses. It is a ballpark, not an appraisal or an offer.

Sources: each state's price publisher, linked in the table. Volume per acre: Forest2Market timber sale data for the South; USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis for the hardwood, northern and western states. These are estimates for planning, not an offer or an appraisal.