What does merchantable timber mean on a land listing?

It means the seller believes some of the trees are big enough for a mill to buy. It says nothing about how many there are, what product class they fall in, or what a timber buyer would pay. Treat it as a reason to ask for a timber cruise, not as a measurement.

Who can do a timber cruise in Alabama?

Hire an Alabama registered forester. The Alabama Forestry Commission says a consultant is required to be an Alabama Registered Forester. The State Board of Registration for Foresters keeps a public roster you can check before you hire anyone.

Can I use published timber prices to value the trees myself?

You can use them to learn the market, but not to price a tract. TimberMart-South publishes quarterly statewide averages by product. Your trees could sell above or below that average depending on size, quality, volume, access, and how many mills are close by.

Does the county's appraised value include the timber?

No, not in a way you can use to price the trees. The county sets its figure for tax purposes, so it can't tell you what a timber buyer would pay. Only a cruise does that.

Should I ask the seller for an old timber cruise or harvest records?

Ask the seller for any old cruise report, harvest records, or the contract with the last logger. A cruise from several years back is out of date, because the trees have grown and prices have moved. Treat it as a clue and order a new one.

How to Tell What the Timber on a Tract Is Worth Before You Buy

Standing timber is worth what a buyer pays for it on the stump. Species, size, volume, access, and nearby mills set that, and only a forester's cruise measures it.

Find out what a timber buyer would pay for the standing trees. Foresters call that stumpage. It depends on species, tree size and quality, volume, how hard the tract is to log, and how many mills are nearby. Only a timber cruise by an Alabama registered forester measures it on a specific tract. A listing that says "merchantable pine" is the seller's description.

What You Pay for Standing Trees Is Called Stumpage

The Alabama Cooperative Extension System keeps a glossary of forestry terms for landowners. It defines stumpage as "the value of standing timber in a woodlot, determined by a number of factors, including species, size and quality of trees, and market conditions." In plain terms, it's what a timber buyer pays the owner for trees still on the stump. The buyer still has to cut, load, and haul them.

That last part matters. Timber price reports list stumpage and delivered prices separately. The delivered price is what a mill pays at its gate. If you hear a number from someone in the log business, ask which one it is.

Extension sorts trees into product classes by size, and the class drives the price.

Pulpwood is "a smaller class size of trees that are usually chipped and made into paper products."
The middle class, chip-n-saw, covers trees that produce "both chips and dimensional lumber."
Trees at least 10 inches across at breast height, tall enough, and free of major defects like forks or disease count as sawtimber. They "can yield dimensional lumber."

Timber is sold by the ton, the cord, or the board foot. A cord is a stack 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long.

The Same Pines Can Bring Different Prices on Different Tracts

Two tracts can both say "planted pine" and be worth very different amounts. Mississippi State University Extension lays out the reasons in a short publication, What Influences Sawtimber Stumpage Prices? Alabama's pine woods follow the same logic.

Species and quality. Mills want trees with "greater size and density" that are "straight with minimal taper." Crooked or forked trees fall to a lower class.
Volume. A few acres of sawtimber may not be worth a logging crew's trip. The publication notes that "larger, accessible tracts close to roads and mills attract higher prices."
Access and logging conditions. A tract with a good road in and firm ground is cheaper to log than one behind a creek with steep draws. Harder logging tends to mean a lower offer for the same trees. Roads and loading areas a logger has to build "are figured into the price that is offered for the timber," says Penn State Extension. It adds that "steep, rocky, wet areas, or wetland crossings can increase costs to the logger as well."
Markets. "Mills prefer timber sourced within 75-100 miles to minimize transportation costs," and areas with more mills tend to see more competition for wood.

The same publication puts it in one line: "timber prices are also local in nature." A county with one paper mill and a county with three sawmills are two different markets, even if the trees look alike.

A Listing Line Is Not a Timber Cruise

A listing agent or a seller can tell you the timber is "worth $40,000." Ask where the number came from. The honest answer can be a guess, an old cruise, or a figure someone heard at the feed store. An agent is licensed to sell land. Measuring trees is a separate job with its own license.

Extension's forest inventory FAQ describes a timber cruise as "a process of identifying the location of timber and other forestland resources, and the volume and value of those assets." The forester won't measure every tree. They lay out sample plots, then record species, diameter at breast height, height, and defects. The report turns that sample into volume by product class across the whole tract.

Extension is direct about who should do it. "In most cases, it is best if you hire a professional to do the inventorying," it says, "especially if the process involves assigning a dollar value to timber."

In Alabama that professional is a registered forester. The State Board of Registration for Foresters licenses them. Its forester information page calls a registered forester "a professional forester licensed to practice forestry in Alabama." Alabama law defines the practice of forestry to include "consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, or responsible supervision" of forestry work. The Alabama Forestry Commission's Selling Your Timber guide adds that a consultant must be an Alabama Registered Forester.

To find one, the commission points to its own website, the Alabama Chapter of the Association of Consulting Foresters, and the board. The board's site has a roster of registered foresters. Check it before you hire, and ask for the fee in writing.

Published Price Reports Average Out Everybody Else's Timber

Stumpage prices are published, and they're worth reading. The Forestry Commission's guide lists "Check Timber Prices" as a step on its timber sale timeline. Extension's How Timber Is Sold tells sellers to "pay attention to the timber market through sources such as TimberMart-South and Forest2Market."

Know what you're looking at. TimberMart-South publishes quarterly stumpage and delivered prices for 11 Southern states, with statewide averages in dollars per ton. An average blends big tracts and small ones, easy access and hard, near a mill and far from one. That tells you which way the market is moving. It can't tell you what a buyer will offer for the 40 acres you're looking at.

We don't print a stumpage figure here for that reason. A per-ton number without the cruise to multiply it by is a number with nothing behind it.

The same caution goes for LandScout's own timber fields. The parcel page shows a forest type, stand age, and timber volume. These come from the U.S. Forest Service inventory plot nearest the parcel, which can be miles away, and the page labels them approximate. On the Shelby County numbers, 49.1 percent of the parcels LandScout scores are forested, and loblolly pine is the most common forest type (export as of October 1, 2026). That tells you pine is common on parcels like these. It's a starting point for the questions, and the cruise on the actual tract still decides the answer.

The Low Tax Bill and the Fresh Stumps Both Tell You Something

A wooded tract often comes with a very low county value and a very low tax bill. That's usually current use valuation, which taxes qualifying timber land on what it grows. The formula uses statewide pulpwood prices and soil ratings. Nobody counted the trees on this tract to get it. Why the tax on a timber tract is so low covers how it works.

The part a buyer has to know is that the valuation does not pass with the deed. The Department of Revenue says a new owner must apply between October 1 and January 1, or the land is valued at market value. If the county figure looks far below the asking price, why the county number and the seller's number differ explains that gap too.

A tract that was clear-cut a year or two ago can look like a bargain next to the one down the road. Often it's priced lower because the timber value already left on a log truck. What's left is the land and young trees that may be many years from a sale.

Look for the signs on the walk. Fresh stumps, piles of tops and limbs, fresh skid trails, and a newly cleared patch where logs were loaded are signs the tract may have been cut recently. Compare older and newer aerial photos of the parcel. Then ask the seller in writing when the tract was last cut, and whether any timber contract is still open.

Timber can be sold apart from the land by a timber deed, and Extension notes that lump-sum sales "usually include a timber deed." Ask the title company or closing attorney to look for any outstanding timber deed or cutting right before you close.

The person who built LandScout grew up riding along while his father sold land. Wooded tracts came up often in that truck, and so did timber numbers that nobody had measured. The habit he took from it is the one he uses as an engineer. Pull the record. When the record doesn't exist yet, pay the person licensed to make it.

Get the cruise before you sign, or make the contract depend on one. If the cruise comes back thin, you've learned it for the price of a forester's fee. If it comes back strong, you know what you're paying for.

LandScout puts the county value, acreage, flood zone, soils, and approximate forest type for each parcel in one file. The pricing page lists what the free and paid plans include.