To give you an ideere of what 80 cords is, a 48' logging trailer will hold about 20 cords, so you have had a forester tell you you have 4 truckloads worth.
Advice: do not sell it by the ton - cedar is way light and you will not receive fair value.
Ask for the log rule that the wood will be scaled with. Beware that some log rules allow for a 1/4 saw kurf, and nobody has used 1/4 inch saw blades for years, because they turn too much wood into sawdust.
Logging is pretty straight forward. Costs for logging up my way are about $30 cord, all found. I am referring to a 4'x4'x8' stacked cord. Maybe a bit less if access is good and wood is big, and more if the other way.
In terms of value, big clear cedar is worth some money. I can't speculate on a value having not seen it, but my latest issue of the Forest Products Marketing Bulletin (
www.oforest.on.ca) lists cedar anywhere from $240 to $960/ cord (they list their prices in $/cubic metre of solid wood, of which there are about 2.4 cubic metres in one cord). These prices are on the stump, so all costs associated with getting them off the stump to the mill must be accounted from these numbers.
Best way to scale, IMHO, is in cubic metres. You are dealing with solid wood with no air spaces, deductions for defect made and no saw kurf rules to play with your volumes. Good luck trying to ask for a scale in cubic metres from someone dealing for years in one log rule or another. You should get about 48 cubic metres of wood on the same truck as mentioned above. I can provide more detail given more detail on size and straightness.
BTW, this far north, we call it eastern white cedar. Thuja occidentalis is the latin name.
Dan
