juglans nigra

[treeman82]

ok, not that i have had this experience, however... i went to a home today, and they had some black walnuts right by the house. i think there were about 5 or so of them. smallest being 2' dbh. biggest is about 3 - 4 foot, maybe more. she didnt wanna prune them or cut em down, however. for those of you who get asked to cut down juglans nigra do you even charge for that? if you are gonna get that much for the lumber. and if you do wind up cutting down a good one, how much is the timber usually worth. i am not talking veneer quality, but where it is good for gun stocks and whatever else they use it for. i had heard that in some places, if you have a large tree like that it can be stolen, people will go in with helicopters and steal them in the middle of the night. so what do you guys do? have you ever heard of trees being stolen?

 

[the tree guy]

Treeman 82,walnuts can be worth quite abit,but even to cut them down at someones house I still charge to cover insurance and time.if the trees are not money trees you can lose money pretty fast.If I do walnuts in a yard I figure to get 55 cents per board deliverd to the mill.A 8 foot x 24inches in diameter=84 board feet=$46.20. you should get 2to 3 logs if the tree is fairly stright.ON the bigger trees you may get up to $1.50 per board foot ,but usually yard trees that big the heart wood is starting to decay making the log worth alot less.A rule of thumb I use is, for all hard wood that I plan to sell,18 inches diameter=6to7 dollars per foot of log .24=7to9 ,32=10to12 above that you cant't be too sure. I do work for the local saw mill some times on yard trees,but so far I don't think the mill has made out too good on the trees. between metal and dead wood tomuch loss.the only way to cut a walnut down without charging is khnowing it will grade out.But then if you bust it dropping it,you lose money and work for free.I'm speaking from doing a dumb thing. Dan

 

[Deere John]

Bird's eye maple is also subject to theft. I have heard there are people who will, without permission, walk woodlots looking for the tell-tale signs of birds-eye. Drop it, skid it out, winch it on a trailer and get $3-4000/Mfbm. Beware of anybody who seems snoopy around your higher-value hardwoods.

Also, many property owners on either side of a property that is being "legitimately" logged (note: I did not use the word "sustainably") later find out that the logger took liberty with the property lines and some of their biggest and best are gone. There was a thread here in the forestry forum about such a case, about 3 months ago.

No walnut up here, but I have heard that on some of the better walnut stems, people even go so far as to excavate the stump and sell that too.

 

[Deere John]

Oh yeah - I missed your other point in question. I agree 110% with the tree guy, always charge something. First, the job then constitues a legal contract, you have to go home each night with some dough in your pockets, or momma's going to not be so happy, and if the client pays for the service, there is less chance they will wonder how badly they are being screwed if you can afford to work for free.

I leaned this the hard way too - not walnut but red pine sawlogs. The handling killed any potential profit in the job.

 

[Toddppm]

I don't bother with trying to sell logs , all the mills are too far away around here unless you're lot clearing. Paulownias are stolen in this area pretty frequently, they are pretty valuable, I think more than walnuts.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

As Dan said, metal can kill a mill blade. Around here only little indipendant mills will take any urban log. Mostly i have given it away for the labor savings. They coem and winch it out...

I know one guy who will come out if I have a trailer load and will give $.02/bf or around $200 a load. I have to yard it up though.

I have a buddy with a WoodMizer, he is realy not getting to much from it. Covers his exoenses and he has wood to work with. We put some in a local WoodCraft, but no real results yet.

The $3000 urban tree is a legand, the only ones i know of came from woodlots. $40/log is what I usualy ballpark them at,and you gotta get them to the yard, 5 gives you around $200- that gives a little profit for the trouble, Whatr's your hourly rate, money saved from bucking vs. dumping at a firewood lot.

I've also sold a few slabs at wood stores that I keep in the bed of my truck. get lunck money for that.

 

[Eric E.]

It's full price removal, if I can get money for logs, Walnut or not, thats just extra for me. Last Black Walnut I removed the few local mills said they would take it for a charge or maybe free if there was enough. No market around here.