Selling Timber for N.H. Woodlot Owners

Foresters can help ensure positive results

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 result 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.

Do your homework and follow sound principles to ensure a successful timber sale:

• Practice forestry
• Use a written contract
• Hire a licensed forester.

Video about a carefully considered timber harvest

By watching, you can learn how to have a carefully considered harvest on your own land that follows sound principles and meets your goals.

The following fact sheets should help:

An Overview

• Timber Sale Guidelines

Use Professionals

• Lists of licensed forester
• 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.

Use a written contract

• The Timber Sale Contract describes the key elements of a contract and also includes sample clauses and explanations of their meanings. This version contains sample contract language only.

Follow the Laws

• Guide to New Hampshire Timber Harvesting Laws
• Best Management Practices for Erosion Control on Harvesting Operations in NH 
• Best Management Practices for Forestry: Protecting NH's Water Quality (downloadable document)

Know about Taxes

• Federal timber income tax
• Current use

Practice Forestry

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