Timber
glossary
The words behind US timber and forest inventory: how timber is priced (stumpage, delivered, MBF, log rules) and how it is measured (FIA, timberland, sawtimber, TPO). Understanding these avoids comparing figures that are not comparable.
US timber & inventory terms
Source: USDA Forest Service FIA glossary of standard terms. See FIA forest definitions.
- Stumpage
- The price paid for standing timber 'on the stump', before it is cut. Usually quoted in $/MBF or $/ton.
- Delivered / roadside price
- Stumpage plus harvesting and hauling: the price of logs at the roadside landing (roadside) or delivered to the mill (delivered).
- MBF
- Thousand board feet (M is the Roman numeral for 1,000).
- Board foot
- A piece of wood 12 in x 12 in x 1 in, i.e. 144 cubic inches.
- Log rules (Doyle, Scribner, International 1/4)
- Formulas that estimate board-foot yield from a log's small-end diameter and length. Doyle underestimates small logs (favours buyers); Scribner is common in the West; International 1/4-inch is the most accurate and is often used as a reference. The same log gives different MBF under each rule.
- Cord
- Stacked roundwood 4 ft x 4 ft x 8 ft = 128 cubic feet gross; a common pulpwood and fuelwood unit.
- Sawtimber
- Trees large enough for saw logs (softwood 9 in+ / hardwood 11 in+ diameter).
- Pulpwood
- Smaller roundwood for pulp, paper and OSB, sold by cord or ton.
- Chip-n-saw
- A Southern pine product between pulpwood and sawtimber: the outer wood is chipped and the core is sawn.
- FIA
- Forest Inventory & Analysis, the USDA Forest Service's continuous national forest census. Volume, growth and removals on this site come from FIA.
- Timberland
- Forest land that is not reserved and can produce at least 20 cubic feet per acre per year of industrial wood.
- TPO
- Timber Products Output, the FIA companion program estimating industrial roundwood, logging residue, mill residue and fuelwood by state and county.
Three kinds of "timber price"
1. Federal public timber-sale price. What the government received for timber sold from national forests and BLM lands. This is public domain and we do show it on the federal timber prices page — but the USDA Forest Service warns that these are not reliable unit values (Good Neighbor volumes and zero-value firewood distort the averages). Treat it as a broad indicator only.
2. Private-market price. Stumpage or delivered prices in the commercial market, tracked by TimberMart-South and various state and university reports. These are copyrighted or licence-restricted, so we do not republish them.
3. Your own price. A quote you obtain from your forester, consultant or mill. Put it into the calculator with a quantity and log rule to estimate value.