New here - Clearing the pine trees on our land, is this contract fair?

[two_bit_score]

Hello and good morning,

I am new here, so thank you for your patience and support and help.

My family, including me, owns about 12 acres of land, with our house, in the north Houston, TX area.

The property has several pine trees that have been there for years or decades, some of which are close to the house.

I would say that in total, the property has about ~400-500 trees of varying diameter, all of them are tall, 50 ft or more.


thank you kind people

Try the resources here: http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu/...wardship(1)/Guidelines_for_Selling_Timber.pdf


You are not equipped to locate a reliable timber buyer on your own. The TFS can refer you to a forester who can help you get the best deal and take care of your land.

Don't get in a hurry and don't give in to pressure. This is a decision with long term consequences. Getting competent help should be fairly easy where you are located.

There are even law firms in your area who have forestry specialists who could help you if you need it. Better to call them before you need them than after there is a problem.

Good luck.

TBS

 

[Tangoddess]

Thank you all dear friends.

I am going to need more time to process this. The logger in reference is working on a small job down the street, which he has completed. His machines are there, so he is wanting to start my job tomorrow itself. Or he says he has another job 20 miles or so away.

Of course, I do not know if he has another job or not, or if that is a pressure tactic.

What do I tell him? That we need some time to evaluate?

thank you kind friends

 

[Tangoddess]

Here are some pics of the machines he has, from the job he is currently on in the neighborhood.

I do not know anything about these machines, maybe you do?

 

[rustyshakelford]

Don't let them log it for free unless they are digging stumps or you get enough money to pay someone to. The slash piles will be huge and really should be burned as they are going along or daily. I rent a 15 ton track ho with a thumb and could stump that in a week. A larger machine would allow for an easier time. I would also recommend having a Dozer out there to work in conjunction with the ho. It'll be work and rough on the body if you run up on any unseen stumps. Make them leave a clean worksite or you'll be so frustrated at the amount of work ahead of you. Don't let anyone tell you to buy a grapple to clean this up with. This is beyond that unless you have a crazy amount of free time to mess with it. If you can run equipment, rent a Dozer and track ho for about 3-4K for both for a week plus diesel. This wouldn't be that bad if you go that route. Let me know if you have any questions. We're between Montgomery and navasota

Brett

 

[rustyshakelford]

Here are some pics of the machines he has, from the job he is currently on in the neighborhood.

I do not know anything about these machines, maybe you do?

He's just wanting free wood. He has a lot of overhead with payroll and equipment but you have a commodity that he sells. There's several mills in Cleveland. Hardwood is the only one to truck a good ways. The trucking isn't bad if there is good lumber there. They can make money and not trash your place at the same time. The above quotes you got by the Ton were reasonable. The 6 month contract isn't unusual. Basically gives him freedom to move around if weather. He doesn't want to pay for move the equipment back and forth a bunch so I'd be willing to bet he would finish it at once.

Brett

 

[Sysop]

I would think you could buy that same equipment on craigslist or ebay, spend a year doing it yourself, sell the timber yourself, resell the equipment on craigslist or ebay, and be WAY WAY ahead...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Was a thread on here awhile back where logger came and cherry picked the best timber and left without finishing the job.

 

[rustyshakelford]

I would think you could buy that same equipment on craigslist or ebay, spend a year doing it yourself, sell the timber yourself, resell the equipment on craigslist or ebay, and be WAY WAY ahead...

That's a pretty ambitious project. Mills want fresh wood, not stuff that's been on the ground a few months while you put together a load. As someone who's done this work and cleared lots of acres your underestimating the amount of work clearing land is. Even with heavy equipment if your wanting to profit from the trees, you need to put in your saw time. Bucking the stumps, measuring out for the log specs, limping/topping, sorting and piling. Then comes the hauling part. Then you need to clean up the slash and dodge stumps.

Figure a price of around 2500-3500 per acre for it to be clearer by a land clearing outfit. They keep all the profit from whatever wood is cut and maybe you can sweet talk them into burning it while they are working. Now. This would leave you stump free and theoretically ready to plant because they should've raked it out.

Brett

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Was a thread a few yrs ago where a guy Did this exact thing, cleared out pines, hauled to mill on his trailer, to clear for a house build. In Charlottesville va area.

Thread is : Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

Guy up the road from me Just took out a bunch of large pines, big track hoe. Hauled them on trailer, took about a week for an acre or so. Chipped limbs and hauled out stumps. Looks like they might build, got some stakes in ground.

 

[newbury]

What do your trees look like?

Are they like the ones I've circled:

If so they look big enough to sell for chip-n-saw. But if your trees are slightly smaller (pulpwood) or quite a bit larger (sawtimber) it could be dramatically different.
As was reflected in your quotes.

In the south pulpwood is going for about $10/ton, sawtimber about $22.

The only way to really determine value of your trees before dragging them to the mill is with a timber cruise, and even then it's only an educated guess.

But if you could provide some representative pics and measure the DBH (diameter at breast height) of a few we could make a slightly better guess.