Our immediate hunting land is 120 acres. It's mixed hardwood with some small cedar swamps but predominantly overgrown old Christmas tree farm.

When I was a kid, you could still cut trees off it and hunt. Wasn't too bad. Now the Christmas tree area is way too overgrown. Completely un-huntable but provides bedding for deer.

This year we noticed that the balsams have bud worm. Going to lose most of them.

It's been my contention that our land could use some good select cutting to promote better deer herd health. Very little undergrowth in many areas.

Due to the bud worm my father contacted a forester/logger. He did a quick walk, made some preliminary impressions but wants to walk the land with me, my dad and brother to get a better idea of just what we want. Knowing we're looking to cut the old Christmas trees mostly and then cut the hardwood to maximize deer habitat - he gave an initial value of the timber they'd cut. Seemed like a good price to me but how does one know?

Guy has good references and the like - that's not an issue. Just wondering if there's an easy way to know if the price given is fair and marketable? It's not like I can go on treebroker.com and comparison shop.

So - how do I know if a forester is blowing smoke? What questions should I ask?

Best way to get a reading is to get ahold of another guy and get the same type estimate from him.

Hope there's another in your area.

^^^^^^what he said.

It's the UP - foresters/logging guys abound. This one came 2 hours to walk the property.

I'm sure we'll get more to check it out. Just wondering if there was anything I needed to be wary of.

Seems like you want it cut over to help with the deer/hunting, the money is just lagniappe.

Scott - very true. BUT if I'm going to get paid (initial quote was into the 5 figures a good ways) - I may as well get what it's worth - all the way.

If you're happy, go with it. You're still getting what you want and getting paid for it.

Agreed.

Plus, you may want to get in writing the condition of the land before, during, and after.

Some of them leave a mess that takes years to clean up.

just wondering,

is there value in the over grown christmas trees?

or are they just clearing those?

I guess I'm the odd guy out. If he came 2 hours and wants to come again, walk it with him and if you like the guy, do it.

I make decisions based on gut and if I like the person or not.

I've stopped at the first quote because of the person/business.

Christmas trees would be sold for pulp to the local paper mills. The debris would also be chipped and sold to the local pulp mills as well. NONE of the timber would be used for anything other than that.

We had the place "select" cut a while back and they did leave a mess, this isn't the same outfit.

Kind of how I feel too. It's a group decision tho - family. It's not even the money, it's just getting good hunting out of it really.

That said - the money would pay the taxes for at least a decade which would be nice.

Pulp wood is fairly easy to figure. I know a load around here is bringing about $900 per load at the mill (about 27 tons per load), so that's about $35 per ton.

That's pine.