A timber buyer approached an elderly widow about buying the logs on her 140 acres. He would cut all of her trees that had a 14-inch stump diameter (12 inches diameter at breast height) and larger and would pay her $15,000. This sounded very attractive to her as she was in need of some money to pay bills. She told her son about the offer and he said to wait until he could talk to me.
I advised them against it. When some (not all) loggers have the opportunity to pick which trees to cut, all of the good trees will be gone and the bad ones will be left to spread their genetically inferior seed and to shade out the potentially good sprouts. For example, I asked them if they were trying to improve their cattle herd and make some money at the same time, would they let the buyer come and pick which cows he wants. The results would be the same, poor genetics and poor growing stock.
The landowners decided to reject the offer and allow me to come up with a management plan which would include my work team marking the trees that NEEDED to come out due to maturity, overcrowding or defect. The objective was to put money in their pocket and leave the timber growing more vigorously. Of the 140 acres of timber, we found that only 84 acres had trees that needed to have some removed.
It took us one day to designate which trees to harvest and estimate their volume. The trees were marked at breast height and at ground level with blue tree marking ink so that after the tree was cut, we still had record on the stump that it was a marked tree. We marked 759 trees with an estimated total of 153,437 board feet. Tree species marked included (in order of greatest volume) black oak, white oak, shortleaf pine, post oak, hickory, black cherry and black gum. Diameters at breast height ranged from 12 inches to 30 inches with 64 percent of the volume falling in the 16- to 20-inch diameter classes. The 12- and 14-inch diameter trees were marked only when they were overcrowded or deformed yet still had some commercial value. The best were left to grow.
Timber sale bids were sent out to 21 buyers instructing them to submit a sealed, lump sum bid based on not only our volume estimation but also on their inspection and value estimation. The accepted bidder would have to pay 100 percent of the bid prior to cutting a tree as well as a 10 percent damage deposit that would be returned if all of the contract provisions were met. This is the safest way for the landowner to reduce many of the negatives involved with timber sales.
On the designated day, six bids were received for the landowner to consider. (On a side note, a bid solicitation was sent to the buyer who made the original $15,000 offer but he declined to return it.) The top bid was for $32,226 followed by $26,392, $25,196, $21,610, $18,412 and $8,850 (what was that guy thinking?!). The top bid was accepted and contracts were signed following the bid opening.
To compare, if she would have accepted the first offer, she would have received $107 per acre ($15,000 for 140 acres) for her timber and had all of the good trees cut and no possibility of another timber sale in the foreseeable future. Instead, she received $384 per acre ($32,226 for 84 acres). Now she has a good stand of timber that is better spaced and has the prospect of another timber sale in about 15 years.
- Tim Stanton, MDC resource forester, Ava, Mo.