Selling Timber in Santa Cruz County, CA
Quick answer
There are 4 timber businesses listed for Santa Cruz County, California: 4 timber buyers, loggers and mills. 2 of them have offices in the county. The rest are registered to work here and travel in, and every listing shows how far its office is from the county seat.
Timber prices for Santa Cruz County
No county publishes its own timber prices. These are California's published stumpage prices, what landowners are paid for standing timber, and the best public guide to what timber in Santa Cruz County is bringing. Your own timber can sell above or below them.
| Redwood | $510–$1,050 per thousand board feet |
| Douglas-fir | $10–$350 per thousand board feet |
| Ponderosa pine | $10–$90 per thousand board feet |
| White fir / true fir | $70–$220 per thousand board feet |
| Incense cedar | $40–$150 per thousand board feet |
Source: California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, July–December 2026. All California timber prices
Before you talk to anyone, find out what your timber is worth
Most landowners in Santa Cruz County have no idea what their standing timber is worth, which is exactly the position a buyer wants you in. Four questions gets you a ballpark range before the first offer lands.
Timber Buyers, Loggers & Mills in Santa Cruz County (2)
These 2 are based in Santa Cruz County. Being close matters: hauling is one of the biggest costs taken out of your check.
Santa Cruz Sawmill is a one-man sawmill and timber buying business run out of Boulder Creek, California. David Smith started it in 1994 to saw redwood logs on site into lumber of all sizes, and he still runs it that way today. The sawmill is portable, so instead of trucking your logs off somewhere, he brings the mill to your land and cuts there. He works in redwood, fir, and hardwoods. Services include on-site lumber manufacturing, log purchase and removal, full-dimension lumber, resurfacing recovered wood, and straightening bowed or twisted wood. He also handles tree work tied to a job: subcontracting, log removal, cleanup, and permits. He says having a mill that can cut on-site "saves time and money," which is the whole idea behind how he works. His service area covers the Santa Cruz area, including Bonny Doon, Watsonville, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, and La Selva. This fits a landowner in that part of California who has redwood, fir, or hardwood logs down or standing, and who likes the idea of having the logs milled where they lie rather than hauled off to a yard, dealing with one person who's been doing this work since 1994. From santacruzsawmill.com, read 4 October 2026.
Vaughan Forestry and Land Management is a logging contractor in Felton, California. It has a Google Maps business listing in that category. A listing here is not an endorsement.
Timber Buyers, Loggers & Mills Nearby (2)
Businesses that buy, cut or mill timber in Santa Cruz County, working from a nearby town.
Out of the Woods is a sawmill in Santa Cruz, California, running since 1999. They do a lot more than cut lumber. Their work covers tree removal, felling, stump grinding, hauling, custom and portable milling, lumber grading, drying, planing, and finished millwork, right through to tree to table projects. They're a licensed timber operator and say they are "fully licensed and insured." They work in redwood (including old growth), Douglas fir, tanoak, and walnut, plus bay laurel, big leaf maple, Monterey pine, Ponderosa pine, Monterey cypress, Pacific madrone, coastal live oak, blue gum, and eucalyptus. Their portable mill setup needs an 8 by 20 foot clear, semi flat space, and they bring either a Wood-Mizer for logs up to 36 inches or a Lucas swing blade or slabber for anything bigger. They also take on salvaged and reclaimed logs and lumber. There's no stated minimum acreage, but their past jobs range from single fallen trees on residential land, like the Woodside project milling one fallen redwood for a family wedding, up to larger commissions like a corporate campus bench wall and a 50 foot temple pole. So this isn't a business set up around tract size: it's built around the job in front of them, as they put it, "No project is too crazy or too small." This fits a landowner in the Santa Cruz area with a single notable tree, storm damage, or a small stand to clear, who wants someone who will mill on-site rather than just haul logs away. From redwood.wiki, read 4 October 2026.
Santa Cruz Sustainable Sawmill is a locally owned sawmill based in Santa Cruz, California. They've been at it over a decade, running mobile milling along with custom lumber and live-edge slabs. Their work covers custom lumber cut to dimension, on-site milling, surfacing and re-saw work, custom woodwork, and live-edge slabs. They cut from a variety of wood species, using wood that's fallen or sustainably harvested, "from our yard or yours." For standing timber they do what they call "select, non-invasive tree extrication using small scale harvesting methods with minimal impact to our native forestry," rather than a full harvest. They say they're fully insured and work with individual landowners as well as businesses, contractors, and designers. They serve Santa Cruz County, the greater Bay Area, and Monterey Bay, and they'll come to your property with mobile equipment rather than making you haul logs to a yard, though they also have a Westside Santa Cruz location if you want to see what they have in stock. This fits a landowner with a few trees down or a small selective cut who wants custom lumber or slabs out of their own wood, not someone looking to sell a whole stand of timber for harvest. From scssawmill.com, read 4 October 2026.
Nearby counties
Questions landowners ask
How many timber buyers and foresters serve Santa Cruz County?
4 businesses are listed for Santa Cruz County: 0 consulting foresters and 4 buyers, loggers and mills. 2 of them have offices in the county.
How much is my timber worth in Santa Cruz County?
Nobody can tell you what your timber is worth without walking it. Value depends on the species, the size and grade of the trees, how thickly they stand, the ground conditions and how easily a logger can reach them. Anyone who quotes you a figure without seeing the land is guessing, and a guess in that direction is rarely in your favour.
What stumpage value means →Do I need a forestry consultant to sell timber in Santa Cruz County?
You do not have to use one. A consulting forester works for you rather than the buyer, marks the timber, runs a sealed-bid sale and typically charges a percentage of the sale. Research from several state extension services has found that timber sold through a consultant often returns enough more to cover the fee, though results vary by tract and by market. The decision usually turns on the size of the sale and whether you have sold timber before.
Do I need a forestry consultant? →What is timber worth in Santa Cruz County?
No price series is published for Santa Cruz County on its own. California's latest published stumpage figures (California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, July–December 2026) put douglas-fir at $10–$350 per thousand board feet. What your own timber brings depends on the species, the size and amount of it, and how far it is from a mill. A timber cruise by a forester settles it.
Forester listings for Santa Cruz County come from the county register, revised 2026-11-04. The register is updated quarterly.