Carignan Forestry Consultants

The objective of most timber appraisals is to establish a market value for the trees at a given point in time. Timber appraisals usually begin with a timber inventory. The volume of merchantable wood in the trees is multiplied by current stumpage rates to yield total current market value.

Even though the stumpage rates used in an appraisal may be obtained from recent comparable sealed-bid sales, timber prices can change dramatically over a short period of time. For this reason appraisal values are valid only for the day the report is written, or at best for a few weeks thereafter. Furthermore, many factors influence the price a given tract of timber will command on a given day, and some tracts that contain merchantable trees cannot be given away.

In young pine plantations where the trees are approaching or have just reached merchantable size, timber value should be appraised with regard to future growth. This is accomplished by simulating the growth of the trees over time with a computerized growth-and-yield model, applying current stumpage rates to future volumes, and discounting future values back to the present at a chosen discount rate. Timber can also be appraised at some point in the recent past (say, 10 to 20 years ago) by measuring the growth rates of the trees and applying historic stumpage rates.