Take away lesson, PUT IT IN WRITING.

Always have a iron clad contract and make purchaser post a performance bond.

it is RARE that a mill contract will offer a performance bond, if it's not required by a landowner (or their forester agent).

"trust us" seems to be the order of their day.

another common ploy to avoid like the Plague is the 50/50 contract.

Thanks to all of you for the great advice. We really would rather not timber the property (we like the woods as they are) but have been told that we should before the trees get wind whipped and lose their value. I’ve never heard of this before- is this a real thing that happens to trees?

Never heard that term before. But out this way you can get "ring shake". It only happens on certain sites, but it causes ring separation which results in the lumber literally falling apart when it is milled into lumber. It is a real thing, but I don't know anything about the species of trees you are dealing with or your conditions, but it sounds like something similar.

One local logger told a neighbor their trees had aurora borealis and needed to be removed!

In the northeast, a performance bond is standard procedure, anyone who allows a logger to work on their property without a performance bond , proof of liability and workers comp. Ins.,. Is asking for a nightmare.

This is the crew I would go with.

They way folks speak of loggers here, one would think 99% are nothing but tree pirates. When it is exactly the opposite, -7F today and I have a man on the high seat unloading a tandem as I type. If you're in a timber area, it's not hard to ask around to other landowners, and find a crew that can do what you want. It's amazing that landowners don't realize cutting on a 25 acre patch still requires a 3-5 acre clear landing minimum. There will be turn trees that get barked up to turn corners. Smaller cuts won't support the costs to place clean cut equipment, tree harvesters are high dollar machines, if they're not several hundred acre plots, they're on a lowboy, and that cost money. Smaller cuts require smaller machines and different cut methods to be profitable. It is done everyday, look into a smaller crew, with horses even. We have a well respected local using horses that is booked a year or so out.

I certainly didn't imply that all loggers are crooks. but they have their interests; and the landowners have theirs.

mill foresters are paid to look after the mill's interests.

consulting foresters are paid to look after the landowner's interests.

it's really that simple.

Forest and wildlife management demos are a hit at the trapper get togethers.
Hint

X 2, I agree most today’s loggers are professionals and will have all appropriate ins. And post bond.

and the big problem with making a mistake in MANAGING your woodlot; is that you (or your children/grandchildren) will PAY for that mistake for a LONG time.

educate yourself (your forester will help you!); choose your goals wisely; and LISTEN to your forester. understand that most times, you won't get to have your cake and eat it, too. you can't get every nickel out of your woodlot now and expect to have another commercial sale in 15 years. some of your goals may conflict with other goals. you're paying a forester to balance and [hopefully] achieve what you desire.

Another horror story. Neighbor wanted to sell some oak and I offered to scale and put a sale together for them Pro Bono. They kindly refused and said they had a friend who was a logger and they "trusted him". Long story short, they went to Florida for 3 weeks in February and the trusted logger worked dawn to dusk for the 3 weeks and slicked everything off the lot and they never saw a dime.

Wow.

Truth. More than I expected.

One other thing I've seen as an issue, property lines.

I've seen loggers charged with timber theft because the "landowner" said the line is here because grandpa said so. I saw one family gain a windfall because what they thought was the line wasn't and that strip of big stuff the neighbor never touched was actually theirs.

And there is "line trees" that shouldn't be touched for many reasons not just disputed ownership.

I did a salvage job once on a 50/50 and the landowners high bid was beat by 12 times. Nobody wanted to touch it. I did everything he wanted and we both did well.