Good Marketing

For most landowners, here in New England, they may only see two timber harvests during their entire time of ownership. In light of this it is crucial that when the time comes to  sell your timber -you receive the highest  possible value for it. As a  responsible landowner you have diligently cared for and held onto the land, payed taxes etc.. and the timber sale is your chance to see a financial reward for doing everything right.
Hiring a consulting forester to represent you in the process is a first step in making sure the process goes well. However it is not the only step.
Next you need to determine if the forester has a good grasp of the markets. Oftentimes consulting foresters neglect the marketing aspect of the process choosing instead to place most of their focus on the silvicultural implementation. They may think as long as the harvest is done correctly, looks neat and all the forestry goals are met and their client was paid in a timely manner, then it was success. However, what if by understanding the markets better the forester could have generated an extra  $ 5000.00 for their client. Suddenly we see how important, good marketing , really is. Ignoring it comes at the expense of the landowner client's bottom line.     
To determine whether or not the forester understands the importance of this , you need to be willing to ask some questions of him or her.
 Ask them , before the start of the harvest, what you can expect for value, by individual species. How did they determine this figure? If their answer is something to the effect " the logger we are going to hire has told me this is what he is willing to pay" or " the mill we usually sell to, told us this all its worth" your forester is probably not that savvy at marketing your harvesting timber. In short he/she  has neglected the good -marketing part of the timber harvesting equation.
Another area where good -marketing is neglected is on those timber sales where a large variety of species and products are present. Here in  the central and southern portions of  NH and VT this can be a problem.
The focus of the savvy marketing only takes place on the high grade hardwood sawlogs and veneer or high grade pine sawlogs while the hardwood pallet, hemlock logs,spruce logs and pulp are ignored. This shouldn't be. In many instances these ignored products and species can generate as much  income as two high quality loads of hardwood veneer - if these ignored species and products are marketed well.
Hopefully this information is beneficial and will enable you to make informed decisions about your forested asset..

Here at Stillwater Forestry LLC. we understand the importance of good marketing. In almost all instances we market the wood direct to the various markets. When we combine the  volumes from all of our different client's harvests that may be going at any one time the volume is significant. At times this large volume can be used to generate higher prices for our clients harvested timber. We also have contracts with 5 different pulp mills in New York and Maine. This enables us to avoid having to use brokers and in turn we are able to pass the savings on to our clients. If you have land in NH or VT and are in need of assistance please contact us. We are found on the web at www.stillwaterforestry.com