Northwest Forestry Services has completed hundreds of appraisals of timber, reproduction, and/or forestland.
Northwest Forestry services has inventoried over one million acres of forestland. Properties range from a few acres to 30,000 acres or larger. Inventories have been conducted for both private and public owners.
Our consulting foresters can provide insight on a wide range of forest-related projects.
A timber appraisal is a model of a hypothetical timber harvest. To determine a value, a timber appraiser must know the quality and quantity of forest products available and what the net revenue would be from a likely harvest scenario.
A timber cruise is needed to establish the quantity and quality of forest products that can legally be derived from a given stand of timber. In addition to timber quantity and quality, a cruise often contains information about species composition, age, tree health, site quality, topography, and operability for logging. It also can include data on growth, down woody material, snags, understory vegetation, and other resources. It is sometimes possible to use an existing cruise as the basis of a timber appraisal if adequate data is available.
Once good cruise information is collected, net revenue is calculated. Net revenue is the difference between delivered log prices and all costs associated with a hypothetical harvest. Harvest costs include logging, hauling, road construction and maintenance, administration, harvest taxes, entrepreneurial profit, and risk. The appraiser consults with log buyers and timber harvesters from throughout the region to obtain up-to-date information about the constantly changing market.
A final timber appraisal report gives a detailed account of how the appraiser reached the value opinion along with data summaries, maps, tables and figures used in the data gathering process.
An example appraisal report can be downloaded below:
Northwest forestry services have inventoried over one million acres of forestland. Properties range from a few acres to 30,000 acres or larger. Inventories have been conducted for both private and public owners. We can design inventories from the ground up or provide person-power to inventory projects already in progress.
Generally, a forest inventory is compiled by performing a timber cruise. In a timber cruise, a forest stand is measured to determine the stocking conditions and the quantity and quality of forest products that can be derived from it. In addition to timber quantity and quality, a cruise often contains information about species composition, age, tree health, site quality, topography, and operability for logging. It also can include data on growth, down woody material, snags, understory vegetation, and other resources.
Our consulting services have included the following: