Practical forestry articles covering timber value, timber sales, consulting foresters, QFP planning, forest health, and long-term woods decisions.
16 articles · updated occasionally
Every feature of the free calculator, with screenshots: how to measure a tree for it, why three log rules give three answers, how to build and export a tally, and where an estimate like this stops being useful.
Measure a standing tree and estimate its board feet with the free calculator, see why Doyle, Scribner and International ¼-inch disagree, and learn the limits.
Read the article →Every feature of the free atlas, with screenshots: how to find your land, see what grew there around 1800, check the surveyors' witness trees, compare the old map with today, and carry it all into the field.
A guide to the free Michigan Historical Vegetation Atlas: see what grew on your land around 1800, read witness trees, compare with today, print a field packet.
Read the article →An oak canopy does not guarantee the next generation will be oak. Read the seedlings, the light and the land-use history before choosing a restoration treatment.
How fire exclusion can favor maple and other shade-tolerant trees, why oak regeneration needs more than a burn, and how to use historical vegetation evidence alongside a field assessment.
Read the article →The price of a standing tree is what remains after everything it takes to turn that tree into a log at a mill gate. Understanding the subtraction explains almost every confusing thing about timber prices.
Stumpage is the price of standing timber, and it is a residual: mill price minus felling, skidding, trucking, and the logger's margin. Why that makes the same tree worth different money on different properties, and how sale design moves the number.
Read the article →A timber cruise inventories the trees in a stand. Depending on the decision, a forester may sample plots or measure every tree being sold. Here is what to ask about the method and the uncertainty.
How foresters inventory standing timber by sampling: plots, prisms, basal area, grading, and sampling error. What a cruise report contains, and when a marked sale makes a full cruise unnecessary.
Read the article →Michigan will cut your forestland taxes two different ways. One keeps the land private, one opens it to public foot traffic, and the right choice mostly comes down to acreage, geography, and what your tax bill says today.
How Michigan's Qualified Forest Program and Commercial Forest program differ on access, acreage, taxes, and exit costs, and how a southern Michigan landowner should choose.
Read the article →If you have oak in your woods and a harvest on your mind, the calendar is not a minor detail. It is the line between a clean sale and starting an outbreak you cannot call back.
Oak wilt spreads fastest when Michigan oaks are wounded during the April 15 to July 15 risk season. What the disease is, how it moves, when it is safe to cut, and why a buyer pushing a summer oak harvest is worth a second look.
Read the article →A buyer's free appraisal is that buyer's opening bid, drawn up by the party who gains from a low number. Here is what an independent appraisal measures instead, and why it changes what you walk away with.
A timber buyer's free appraisal is an offer from the party that wants your wood, usually with no full cruise and nothing to compare it against. What an independent appraisal actually measures, and when a buyer's free look is still worth taking.
Read the article →Michigan's QFP trades a property-tax break for ongoing working-forest enrollment under a current plan. The math is real, but it isn't right for every parcel. Here's the honest ledger.
What Michigan's Qualified Forest Program actually saves, what it obligates you to do, the withdrawal penalty, and the landowners who shouldn't enroll at all.
Read the article →Walnut is the tree buyers knock on doors for, and the species behind every too-good-to-check timber story. What actually sets a walnut tree's value, and the one mistake that costs owners the most.
What determines black walnut tree value in Michigan: grade, usable logs, defect, access and buyer demand. Separate woodland timber sales from yard-tree removal before pursuing an appraisal.
Read the article →Before accepting a timber offer, establish which trees are included, how payment works and what the harvest agreement protects.
Review a Michigan timber buyer's offer with a practical checklist: tree list, boundaries, payment basis, scaling, deductions, cleanup and independent advice.
Read the article →Surveyors measuring land for sale in the 1800s left behind an accidental record of the state's original forests, prairies, and wetlands. Here is how the General Land Office surveys work, what they can tell you about your land, and where they fall short.
How 1800s General Land Office surveyors accidentally recorded Michigan's pre-settlement forests and prairies through witness trees: what that data can tell you about your land, and the limits worth respecting.
Read the article →An independent forester represents the landowner. Not the buyer, not the mill. Here's what that means in practice.
Learn how a consulting forester helps Michigan landowners protect timber value, improve forest health, plan harvests, and manage woods for the future.
Read the article →A safer process for evaluating offers, marking trees, requesting bids, and protecting the woods you keep.
Before selling timber in Michigan, learn how to check offers, mark trees, use contracts and protect your woods with a consulting forester.
Read the article →There is no honest one-size-fits-all price per acre. Here's what actually drives standing timber value.
Learn what affects timber value in Michigan and why a professional appraisal protects your woods, income, and long-term goals before selling.
Read the article →A nine-step walkthrough for landowners: from goals to closeout.
Learn the timber sale process in Michigan, from forest walk and appraisal to bids, harvest monitoring, and post-harvest planning.
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Contact
Tell me about your property: county, acreage, and goals. When the project is a fit we walk the land together, and a clear written scope and quote follows.
By telephone
(517) 290-0043Direct line for landowner inquiries. Calls and messages returned within 24 hours
Brandon Baird · Michigan Registered Forester · #47097 · Works only for landowners, never for mills or buyers.
Service area: The southern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, within about a two-hour drive of Lansing
Baird Forestry · Brandon Baird, Michigan Registered Forester · #47097 · (517) 290-0043 · baird.forestry@gmail.com · bairdforestry.com