225 acre hardwood lot worth ?

[Toddburton]

Hey guys so I am from nova Scotia Cape Breton, recently bought 225 acres of with my home and garage on it , my father found a good bit of birds eye maple , there maybe some curley maple as well the lot over from me had some he had sold.

It's mostly oak , ask , rock maple some birds eye etc etc ...mature trees it's never been cut its on a slight mountain incline but I have a bulldozed road up it!

So I looked further into it and passed my number alot I got a call from a guy in maine which offered to come get some wood and asked if he could send a good crew down....I'm not experienced with this but from my research a acre will usually yield u 20-25 cord depending on the wood size ....what would good price on 50 acre section be ? Or same a truck load I'm trying to get some numbers together for when he makes his offer, once I said it was never cut before he go real interested .

Thank in advance guys

 

[woodenboater]

If it's never been cut before, I'd be inclined to get a timber cruiser to take a walk through your land with you so you can understand what u have and the value of the woods. Would hate to see someone take advantage of you and you lose out on what could be a valuable commodity. whereabouts on the island, roughly speaking ?

 

[Toddburton]

I live directly on the Cabot trail furthest north u can come basically , the land is in big interval it is called and the closest town is Cape north!

I don't want to be taken advantage of by any means I've seen 700-1200 per truck load but that wasn't for birdeye or curley maple

 

[woodenboater]

Ah, near Meat Cove, a place I've been wanting to visit since hearing friends talk about their camping trips there lol. If your trees are big, there's some seriously expensive dining room tables in that there curly. I'm typing on one as we speak Hold tight to them until you find the right deal, we ain't talking firewood here if they're prime trees.

tbh, I'm surprised someone from Maine is interested. That's a long drive and I wonder if exporting it will be a hassle for them as well.

 

[Toddburton]

Yea I am about 30 minutes from meat cove ! And he has bought from down my way before in margree which is about a hour and 15 minutes from me .

I wonder how much it would cost someone to come take a look I'd like him to come look at first also .

My neighbour used to do some logging and the place he sold his to exported them for Veneer I believe not 100% on it tho are we talking maybe 50+ thousand for 50 acre lot ? It's likely about 14 hours from Maine it is a long haul but must be worth it for him lol

 

[Gypo Logger]

It's all about marketing and getting the right buyer. I'd think long and hard before you sell impulsively.
If the stand is cut right it will yeild large dividends for many years to come.
There are lots of variables here to consider. Was the stand a sugar bush at one time?
As already said, I'd call a provincial forestor first. I doubt that they will charge you.
The timber could very well be worth more than you paid for the property.

 

[Toddburton]

I paid 175 thousand for the house which is 14 years old a 24x30 shop and another serviced lot up the road that's why I didn't pass up the deal !

Thanks for the help I will also call them and touch base and see if they can point me in a good direction , I'm only looking to sell a 50 acre chuck maximum ..I'm in no rush I told the buyer that as well. I like to do my research on this stuff so I'm glad you guys are willing to help.

There's alot of sugar maple they had 100s of feet of sap line there about 10 years ago

 

[woodenboater]

imho, I wouldn't let Maine dude come up BEFORE you had someone cruise your stand. You want to know exactly what you have, where it is and get some idea how easy it will be to log and remove. iow, will they tear up your land to get to it. The terrain around there is very slopey as is much of CBI when u get past Cheticamp

If that were my property (wish I had known...) I'd be looking at very selective cutting and if it opened up bike/ski/snowshoe/atv trails, that's gravy. As Gypo said, this could be a long term investment so go slow. I'd sooner let it keep growing than to sell it undervalued.

Good luck and take a few photos if you go for a walk through the back 40

 

[Toddburton]

I will for sure I am in Alberta for 12 more days I'm in no rush it's something that came my way ...thanks guys keep them coming !

 

[Gypo Logger]

Would you consider logging it yourself? Which is a dangerous, long and exacting apprenticeship.
If you contract it out and settle on a price, I'd make it performance based. Ten acres at a time..
Often times, the steeper the ground the better the timber.
Can you give us an average diameter of the more mature trees and an approximation of how many mature trees there are per acre and the species percentage wise?
A mature tree suggest 18" dia or larger or one that when hugged your finger tips barely touch at breast height.

 

[Toddburton]

I can try get all that information when I get home it's so spread out I haven't seen most of it yet .

Just a picture from last spring that's on the ridge behind my place comparing to a mountain across the way..thanks for the help guys unforutally I don't have the time to do the cutting myself I work away for 2 weeks of the month

 

[bitzer]

According to what Gypo has said in the past cut the absolute best of the best out. In 225 acres that would mean about 20 trees. Then move on. Also the steepness of the ground has nothing to do with the quality. Hire a consultant forester and find out what you really have. 225 acres is a good piece and depending on timber you could get 250-500 per acre in a select cut. Possibly more and definitely less for poor timber. Too many factors here without experienced eyes looking at the woods.

 

[Gypo Logger]

If you took 250- 500 trees per acre, there wouldn't be anything left, but then again Bitzer takes anything that makes a 2x2. Lol

 

[Toddburton]

Not sure guys I'll have someone come check it out I guess, definitely not interested in picking put 20 trees unless it's worth the time and effort and with that I'd need to find a buyer for single or a few logs Ata time I'm sure...thanks for all the help even tho I'm more discouraged now then anything hah

 

[northmanlogging]

225 acres sounds like it would have a fair amount of timber, I'm a west coast guy so I know nothing about east coast logging. But my advice to you is contact a consulting forester, or county forester and have a cruise done, that will give you a pretty good idea of what kind of timber and its value.

Also if the birds eye and figure maple market is anything like out here, 20-25 trees is more then worth the effort, roughly 2 log loads of stupid high value timber.

 

[bitzer]

If you took 250- 500 trees per acre, there wouldn't be anything left, but then again Bitzer takes anything that makes a 2x2. Lol

250-500 dollars per acre numb nuts. That would be the landowners cut after logging/trucking. In 225 acres you could easily cut 5-10 sawtimber trees per acre and that would be taking about 30 percent of the stand out. That will open gaps for regen and still have plenty of woods left. Hard to tell the prescription for the cut with virtually no information. I was joking about the 20 trees and move on. That's high grader stuff and it would be just plain stupid to leave all that money standing in there with little change to the woods. irresponsible really but that's what you've preached. Timber stand improvement is the name of the game if you want to make money off of your stand every 10-15 years. We do it here all the time.

 

[Toddburton]

Sounds about right to me i don't mind throwing out the adress Blitzer if u wanna look at Google maps or viewpoint u can get some satellite imagines , there is one cut to the left of my house that was all cut and split for firewood though! What a waste I can honestly say no one home realizes the worth of the wood we have around there I had no idea untill someone suggested it to me

 

[Gologit]

Sounds about right to me i don't mind throwing out the adress Blitzer if u wanna look at Google maps or viewpoint u can get some satellite imagines , there is one cut to the left of my house that was all cut and split for firewood though! What a waste I can honestly say no one home realizes the worth of the wood we have around there I had no idea untill someone suggested it to me

Bitzer knows what he's talking about.

 

[northmanlogging]

Sounds about right to me i don't mind throwing out the adress Blitzer if u wanna look at Google maps or viewpoint u can get some satellite imagines , there is one cut to the left of my house that was all cut and split for firewood though! What a waste I can honestly say no one home realizes the worth of the wood we have around there I had no idea untill someone suggested it to me

That right there happens all over, folks think oh I'll just cut it for the stove, meanwhile there's 10k in a 5 acre thinning and they still have loads of fire wood.

 

[Toddburton]

Exactly just trying to find a foristier now! Maybe some one in the provincial park can assit