A Good Deal?

A landowner had seen an advertisement of mine and contacted me to write a tree growth management plan for them. He and his wife had recently bought a house and land which was enrolled in the Tree Growth Tax Program and needed a new plan and application written up, which I gladly accepted to complete.

During our first meeting we reviewed maps, how the lot was previously classified and what their long term plans/objectives were. We took a walk around the lot, which had been very lightly thinned approximately ten years prior and could easily see that it was very well stocked with sawlog sized white pine in the overstory and a mixed wood component in the intermediate and understory levels. As we walked back within sight of the landowner’s home, he happened to mention a tree near the house that he was looking to get taken down. It was a large diameter white pine reasonably close to the house, but not a difficult tree to be cut and felled away from the house.

He mentioned that a logger (who I had never heard of, from several towns away) had looked at the tree and said he would cut it down in exchange for six truckloads of pine logs cut from the woodlot that we had just looked at. After hearing this, I quickly recommended to the landowner to rethink the offer he had received. The amount of wood the person had wanted in exchange for cutting the tree and not even guaranteeing cleaning up anything was worth several thousand dollars if a landowner was paid stumpage for it during a timber harvest. After explaining to him the value of the wood he had on his lot, I asked if he had any interest in a selective harvest on the lot, based on what I had seen during our walk and he replied “definitely”.

After finishing the management plan which included silvicultural prescriptions for all stands of wood on the lot, timber was marked to be removed and a timber harvest was administered. As part of this harvest, the tree the landowner had wanted to be removed was easily cut and cleaned up by the harvest contractor without charge and the landowner wound up making over $10,000 from the harvest, rather than losing valuable timber just to take down one tree.

Though not every lot or situation is the same, if you think a deal might be sour such as this, give us a call. We’ll gladly give you expert advice and if we may not be able to help you, point you in the right direction to other highly skilled, trained professionals who will.