By Mike Isbell
University of Georgia
If you don’t like to see trees being cut and removed, don’t ride
on U.S. Highway 27 between LaGrange and Franklin, because that is
exactly what you’ll be seeing.
Highway construction is removing trees along the right
of way. And that really bothers me, since these trees aren’t
being removed for their value but because they’re in the way.
These trees will be gone and won’t be replanted.
Selling a tract of timber
We recently sold a tract of timber my grandfather planted about
60 years ago. The trees were infested with pine beetles, and
slowly, tree by tree, the beetles were killing them. We harvested
the timber because it was valuable.
These trees are gone, too, but hopefully we’ll replant them.
It would have been easy to sell the timber to the first guy who
called to tell me the beetles were in the trees. He just happened
to be a timber buyer. But I knew that wasn’t the right way to
sell a tract of timber.
It takes time to grow the trees, so it ought to take time to sell
them.
Don’t sell it too cheap
Many landowners sell their timber to the first guy who offers
them a price for it. And you can bet they sell it too cheap. Why?
Because they don’t know what it’s worth. But you’d better believe
the timber buyer knows what it’s worth.
It’s not that timber buyers are dishonest. They’re just trying to
buy timber as cheap as they can. In any sale, they’re only guilty
of doing their job well.
If you sell timber, consult a registered forester. Foresters are
well qualified to represent you when selling your timber. You
might get up to twice as much money. And you’ll leave your land
in much better shape, adding value to it.
At a disadvantage
As a timber seller, you’re at a disadvantage. Seldom do you know
the going price for timber. And if you don’t know its value, how
do you know if the price you’re given is a good one? You
don’t.
We used a forester in our sale. He cruised the timber, marked the
trees to be cut, flagged off areas to be left out of the sale and
basically oversaw the harvest. Oh, yeah — he sent out sealed
bids to timber buyers. We selected the highest bid out of seven,
which was almost twice the lowest bid.
We felt confident that we got the best price possible for my
grandfather’s tract.
