In the western softwood market, mostly, the landowner contacts a licensed forester, the forester evaluates the stand, size, grade, species, logging difficulty, environmental hurdles, total expected volume from that stand. Then the forester, who knows his market, contacts the mills buyers, tells them what is being offered. Likely, a forester with a reputation, the mill's buyer will not even go out to look at the proposed job, and make the forester an offer, by species...xxx dollars per thousand bd ft. The forester takes those numbers to the landowner, advises him of his costs, foresters fees, state permits, est. logging cost...sometimes transport will also be on the landowner or on the logger's total cost...anyway, all those moving parts are put together and the forester tells the landowner a ball park estimate of what he will pocket. Papers are signed if it's a go, the forester prepares the logging and rehab plan, state permits are prepared, a logging contractor(s) will come out and go over the plan on the ground with the forester, a deal is reached with the low bid logger...xxx dollars per thousand bd ft, loaded on the mills trucks or delivered to the mill. You, the landowner, sit back and let the checks roll in. If you live out west, log prices are in the basement due to the historic volume of burn salvage available from the the last 2 fire seasons. Hate to be Debbie downer but pine in the west is and will be low forever, the tree farmers in the SE grow that stuff like row crops.
Read this at least 10 times...then hire a forester to mark and handle the sale. Money well spent.
