Selling Timber

Selling timber is a once in a lifetime activity for most landowners. No single activity has such power to significantly improve- or degrade- your forest. Proper harvesting can provide income, improve wildlife habitat, and results in trails, better access, views, and healthy and vigorous forests. Uncontrolled exploitive cutting can reduce these values leading to environmental degradation, public resentment and legal entanglements.

Follow sound principles to insure a successful timber sale, including practice forestry, do your homework, use a written contract, hire a licensed forester. The following fact sheets should help:

An Overview
Timber Sale Guidelines

Use Professionals
Lists of licensed foresters
About Licensed Foresters
Selecting a Forester
Foresters can help insure positive results. They use a special "sign language" to mark trees to direct the logger to cut and leave certain trees. Click here to view pictures and descriptions of marked trees and here to see five indicators of a good harvest.
Hints on selecting a logger

Follow the Laws
Forest Laws
Best Management Practices for Erosion Control on Harvesting Operations in NH
Best Management Practices for Forestry: Protecting NH's Water Quality
(downloadable document)
(order form)

Know about Taxes
Federal Income Tax on Timber: A Key to Your Most Frequently Asked Questions
Tax Tips for Forest Landowners
Timber Yield Taxes
Timber Income Taxes

Other Information
Forestry Best Management Practices in Watersheds is part of the EPA Watershed Academy website. After completing this module, you should be familiar with the ways to reduce impacts of timber harvests to water resources. Self-test questions appear at the end of the module's eight sections.