Stand Basal Area and Stocking Calculator
Work out the basal area of a woodlot from tree count and diameter, compare it with the target for your cover type and size the cut.
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Timber Value and Stumpage Calculator
Price a woodlot standing timber from Doyle scale, species stumpage and merchantable share, then subtract logging to find net value.
Timber Value and Stumpage Calculator
Chlorova · updated for 2026
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Click “Calculate” to see your results.
Stumpage prices per board foot are illustrative regional averages and they move with the lumber market, distance to a mill, species grade and whether a skidder can get into the tract at all. Doyle scale is one of several volume rules and it understates large diameter logs, so two buyers quoting different scales are not quoting the same timber. Merchantable percentage is a judgment about grade, limbs, forks and rot that an experienced cruiser makes tree by tree. Nothing here replaces a timber cruise and a written contract reviewed before a sale is marked or advertised.
Standing timber is priced in three steps that people confuse: how many board feet the stem holds, what a mill pays for that species, and what it costs to get the logs out of the woods. A walnut at two dollars a board foot and a pine at forty five cents are the same tree in volume terms and a different business. This calculator runs the Doyle scale from diameter and log length, applies a merchantable share for grade, then subtracts logging so the number left is what you actually receive standing.
Pricing Timber Before You Call a Buyer
- Choose the dominant species that you are pricing.
- Enter the average diameter at breast height measured.
- Set the merchantable log length used in your region.
- Count only the trees a buyer would actually take.
- Give the acreage that the stand grows on.
- Enter what logging and skidding cost per tree.
- Set the merchantable share you judge for grade.
- Read net standing value rather than the gross.
- Compare the logger's share of the gross value.
- Check the log grade band before advertising a sale.
- Re run it with another species to compare.
- Ask a cruiser before you sign anything at all.
Doyle Scale, Grade and the Cost of Extraction
Doyle scale takes four inches off the diameter for saw kerf and slabs, divides the rest by four and squares it, then multiplies by the length in feet, which is diameter minus four squared times length over sixteen. It is a rule of thumb built for eastern hardwoods and it is deliberately simple, which is why a twenty inch sixteen foot log reads 256 board feet here.
Grade then reduces the volume, because a stem with a fork, a limb scar or rot in the first sixteen feet sells for part of what a clear one does. Gross value is merchantable board feet times the species stumpage rate. Logging is charged per tree rather than per board foot, since a crew mobilizes, skids and loads by the stem, and that fixed cost is what turns a thinning of small pine into a negative number.
Worked Example: Twenty Four Walnuts at Twenty Inches
- Choose black walnut, priced here at 2 dollars per bf.
- A 20 in log gives 256 board feet on Doyle.
- Twenty four trees therefore total 6,144 bf gross.
- On 2 acres that is 3,072 bf growing per acre.
- At 55 percent merchantable, 3,379.2 bf sell.
- Gross timber value comes to 6,758.40 dollars.
- Logging at 60 dollars a tree costs 1,440.
- Net standing value is 5,318.40 dollars total.
- Each tree is worth 221.60 dollars to you.
- Per acre the stand nets 2,659.20 dollars.
- The effective price is 1.57 dollars per bf.
- Logging took 21.3 percent of the gross value.
Illustrative Stumpage by Species
Typical delivered and standing price ranges per board foot for sawlog grade eastern hardwood, which is the multiplier this calculator applies before extraction costs come off.
| Species | USD per bf | Sold as | Grade driver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black walnut | 2.00 | Single logs | Clear length and width |
| White oak | 1.50 | Stave and sawlog | Tight grain |
| Black cherry | 1.20 | Cabinet sawlog | Color and figure |
| Hard maple | 1.00 | Volume lumber | Figure premiums |
| Red oak | 0.90 | Volume lumber | Straightness |
| White ash | 0.80 | Tool and lumber | Market recovery |
| Yellow poplar | 0.70 | Pallet and paint | Width |
| Pine | 0.45 | Mill run | Length and volume |
Key Terms
- Stumpage
- The value of timber standing, before anyone cuts or hauls it.
- Board foot
- A volume of wood twelve inches square and one inch thick.
- Doyle scale
- An eastern hardwood rule that logs small stems conservatively.
- Merchantable
- The portion of a stem a mill will actually buy and saw.
- Skidding
- Dragging cut logs to the landing where trucks can load.
- Cruise
- A tree by tree estimate of species, volume and grade.
What a Cruiser Sees That a Formula Does Not
- Two stands with identical diameter and count can differ by a factor of five in value, because the money in hardwood is in grade rather than volume, and grade lives in the first two logs of the stem.
- A logger prices access before timber. A tract with a wet crossing, no landing spot or a stream buffer may cost more to enter than the wood earns, and that judgment happens on foot.
- Selling by the pound or by the load protects you when grades are uncertain, while selling by the thousand board feet is better when a cruise shows clear walnuts.
- Competition moves price more than market timing, since a sale advertised to three buyers with a written contract usually beats whatever stumpage table you started from.
- Take the money in stages: a crop tree release now and a harvest in fifteen years beats cutting a mixed diameter stand once and losing the best stems to a low grade.
Common Mistakes & Fixes
- Reading gross timber value as money you would receive.
- Pricing an entire stand at the average of one big tree.
- Assuming Doyle and International rules give the same number.
- Signing with the first logger who knocks.
- Skipping a written contract with dates and boundaries.
- Letting a buyer pay by load while volume is unknown.
- Cutting high value stems during a low market cycle.
- Ignoring skidding damage to the trees you keep.
- Harvesting wet ground that ruts the whole tract.
When to Reach for This
Use it before a logger visits so the first number is not the only one, when deciding whether a thinning pays, when comparing two woodlots for purchase, when estimating an insurance or casualty loss on valuable trees, and when writing a stewardship plan with a harvest in it. Pair it with the stand basal area calculator for stocking and volume per acre, the tree value calculator under TRIA for landscape appraisal, the tree diameter calculator to measure honestly with a tape, and the trees per acre calculator for spacing.
Timber Value and Stumpage Calculator: Frequently Asked Questions
How much is a tree worth standing?
Multiply merchantable board feet by the species rate, then subtract extraction. A twenty inch walnut sixteen feet clear holds 256 Doyle board feet, of which perhaps 140 sell, so two dollars gives 280 gross and about 220 net. A pine of that size barely covers a crew visit.
Why is Doyle scale criticised?
It understates large logs and flatters small ones, so big timber priced on Doyle looks smaller than the same wood scaled on the International rule. It survives because eastern buyers know it and it needs only a diameter and a length. Ask which scale a buyer is using.
What does merchantable percentage mean in practice?
It is the share of gross volume a mill will pay for, allowing for limbs, sweeps, forks, shakes and rot. Fifty five percent on mixed hardwood is ordinary, seventy is a clean stand, and forty says the first log is defective on many stems. A cruiser assigns it tree by tree.
Should I wait for a better timber market?
Standing hardwood grows and grades while it waits, and two more inches of diameter usually outruns a price cycle. The exceptions are a glutted low grade market and high value walnut, where one defect can change grade more than a year of market will.
Can I sell firewood and timber from the same trees?
Yes, and owners do it in stages. The buyer takes the first logs as sawtimber while the tops and defective butts go as pulpwood or firewood. Some loggers leave tops on the ground for nothing, so ask whether you can sell that backup wood yourself.
How many trees make a sale worth a logger's trip?
Enough to keep the machine busy, often thirty to fifty tons of hardwood or a few thousand board feet, depending on species and access. That is why the small lot band suggests trading with a neighbor rather than advertising a sale nobody will travel for.
Sources & Further Reading
- Timber Scaling and Volume Tables — USDA Forest Service. Doyle, Scribner and International rules and their bias.
- Selling Timber: A Guide for Landowners — Penn State Extension. Stumpage pricing, contracts and the role of competition.
- Timber Products and Stumpage Price Summary — State forestry agencies, annual reports. Regional species rates by log grade and product.
- Harvesting Eastern Hardwoods Without Damage — University of Vermont Extension. Access, season and skidding effects on residual stands.
Chlorova Gardening Team
Builds, checks and documents every tool we publish
Chlorova editorial review
Checked against extension-service publications
Formula verified against published references · Updated
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