Magazine Series

The prices reported here are those that log buyers—mostly sawmills and wholesalers—are paying for logs. Because these are prices paid for delivered wood, landowners need to adjust the…

It is usually easiest to fell a tree in the direction that it’s leaning, but sometimes it’s necessary to fell it in the opposite direction. A tree leaning away from the intended…

Sometime in June, just after its bright, light green leaves have fully expanded, mountain maple’s delicate, yellow-green flowers begin to bloom. The very un-maple-like, tiny flowers are…

If you want to get a trout fisherman’s attention, whisper the words “hex hatch.” When Hexagenia limbata hatches in early summer, the event draws swarms of fishermen to the ponds that…

Sometimes by midsummer you can identify stands of paper birch from far away: they are the tan patches on otherwise green hillsides. Identifying the cause of the discoloration is more difficult…

Greg Saulnier is paid to be picky. At 44, the Rumney, New Hampshire, native has been looking at logs for 15 years, first as a logger and for the last eight years as a log buyer for Columbia…

In the world of high-end veneer logs, there’s a lot of money to be made – and a lot of things to watch out for. High-end veneer logs are an almost mythological subject. These are…

The young people board the van in the middle of a loud, congested neighborhood. As they ride, they watch the scenery gradually change from factories and apartment buildings to fields and…

You can invest in them. The simplest investment would be time. There are many young hardwood stands dense with saplings the size of your finger or fist that need nothing more than time to…

Imagine this situation: one fine evening, a local forester knocks on your door and asks if you had been thinking of cutting your woodlot anytime soon. As this very possibility has been on your…