Southern Pine Belt Timber Prices and Markets Could See Winter Boom If Wet Conditions Prevail

Following one of the wettest summers on record, timber markets across the southern pine belt appear headed into a promising winter season with prospects of rising demand and prices for tree growers.  That’s the outlook seen by Marshall Thomas, president of one of the nation’s largest forestry consulting and marketing firms, F&W Forestry Services, Inc., based in Albany, Ga.

Writing in his firm’s fall newsletter, F&W Forestry Report, Thomas said some timber products—notably pine pulpwood and hardwood sawtimber and pulpwood—are already reflecting generally higher wet weather price and demand patterns.  He thinks this is likely to extend to larger, lumber-sized pine timber if even normal wet rainfall patterns prevail in he coming winter.

“All in all, timber markets look positive as we move into the typical fall dry season with more ground water than we’ve had in years. The creeks and associated wetlands held water during the summer. While they are drying out some now, most foresters believe that even normal rainfall this winter will create some real issues with logging and make all-weather logging sites very valuable—something we have already seen in the rain-soaked eastern U.S. this summer.”

TO SEE THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE SUMMER 2013 F&W FORESTRY REPORT, SUBSCRIBE NOW.