How Much Is a White Oak Worth? - Timber Harvest For Wildlife 

White oak is what gives whiskey its color and flavor. When he said the second log would go into staves he was talking about whiskey barrel staves.

I tell you right now, a tree is worth al hell of a lot more than money

I worked in a local sawmill in Keokuk Iowa for 5 years. Stacked lots of lumber, operating trim saw, edger training for sawyer. Learnt lumber grading, log grading , loader operation, debarking. Loved the work, got divorced and moved south for several years, never got back into the business. We cut lots of white and red oak, hickory, maple, cottonwood, sysycamore, walnut. We had a steambath for the walnut and dry kilns, fan sheds, air dry.

I love learning from folks who have been around a minute or two, and give you straight answers to straight questions. Thanks for sharing the video and knowledge.

Not sure why YT sent me here, but it was quite interesting, thanks

White oak was used to build ships because it doesn't wick water like a straw as red oak does. Learned that from the rebuilding of the Tally Ho on the Sampson Boat company where Leo went to the south to get White oak for his work. Check it out.

Great episode! Love the basic no-nonsense explanation and actual price for a log.

Thanks for the video. Short, concise, well done.

Great insights--I learned something today, thanks to you!

We had an old plantation farm logged with a bunch of really old tall black walnut trees. A German firm bought them all standing. They came in themselves and harvested them to ship to Germany to be used for clocks. They paid top dollar.

After my house was built I went to the local lumber supplier and bought 12 planks of 2" thick White Oak. I built an 8ft dining room table and bench out of it that will be our forever table.

Wow, excellent video!

That was so informational! Thank you for sharing my friend!

Great information! About to have some ash taken out as it all dies off, and nice to see how things should look!

While I cannot disagree with some comments regarding the honesty of some loggers ,I know from personal experience that there are good honest contractors out there. Do your research and hire a reputable consultant forester to mark the sale and administer the sale. They work for you to ensure fair payment and quality work

Respect to all loggers and anyone pulling lumber!

Great vid guys!!👍🏻👍🏻💯

That is amazing to hear about oak trees dude

Great content as usual! I learned something today.

Really cool video!

I’ve known the Patrick family my whole life they’re great people!!

Super interesting!

Super informative

Great overview.

I had a friend who was offered $8000/tree back in the 1980s, but they were black walnut and he didn't sell.

White oak is crazy right now. Especially on the finished end of the product. My son needed hand rails in his house and the previous owner had a white oak stair case. I measured it all out and red oak priced out at $3,500, hickory was $4,200 and white oak was $8,900. It was ridiculous difference. That’s wholesale on the handrails.

I’m from Mingo county WV and when I was a kid my dad showed me where the Mingo oak was. It’s the largest white oak on record

This is the reason no one will ever log my land. I enjoy my forest to much to have it ripped up for next to nothing. I have a forest of hardwood and I guess the animals and I will enjoy them until I die. I am looking into leaving it in a land trust. I live in New England and I understand the economics of this process but it’s just not worth it to me. Everyone I know that has looked into having their land logged has said the same thing, it’s just not worth it. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Thank you.

Ill never log out our woods again. For the amount of money vs the amount of damages done didnt make it worth it. Tops just pushed in piles, small trees snapped off, huge ruts threw the fields and woods. They came back twice to try and fix the ruts, ultimately had to fix them myself. Not saying all logging companies are like that, just my experience. And it was from a DNR suggested outfit.

One past thing make sure you understand the saw yards and what they buy and use trees for this can change the price some yard will only pay you fourty cents a board foot for anything you bring in and some will buy special trees and pay alot more knowledge is the keys to getting paid more money short your timber out for your best payday man i loved timber i did it for over twenty years and i do miss it so much

Very interesting

I never knew this very cool. If I had a white oak forest I would let you have at and turn into my house and plant another white oak grove for the next owner in 100 years.

One of the times the RU-vid algorithm is great. I’m a flight test engineer for the military so I have no need for any of the information in the video but just in case..

Awaome thanks for sharing

Residential tree guy here; homeowner please don’t think your tree near your home you need trimmed or removed because they are hazardous or too close are this valuable. It takes a lot of equipment and manpower to remove a single tree especially in tight spaces. These guys also have millions of dollars worth of equipment to pay for that makes movement of this sized wood possible.

I love how the logger down plays all of it, like there’s no money in it, low grade flooring, gonna be used for stays on a truck bed, stuff like that. His stuttering and saying “ah” a lot tells me he’s not giving the whole story…

Oak wasn’t bringing good money last year when I select cut my place. The real money was in walnut and maple.

Worth more to me as fire wood. My place was timbered in 1996 up to 15 inches at breast height. Lost to many other trees so to me fire wood makes more sense

Ive got 38 acres of mature white oaks and hickories…had a timber cruiser say i have dozens of veneer quality white oaks….ive thinned everything else out besides oaks and select hickories…

Hey fellas I work at a saw mill ontario Canada love head sawing

Fast example walnut whiteoak redoak maple hard soft depends on variety of trees all this stuff can change a price per semi load

It's worth a hell of a lot more then the value of the lumber that comes from it

Put up trail cams and document every truck load going out and count every log on the trucks. Loggers (especially east of the Mississippi) are not known for their honest behavior.

Wow. A buck 25/board foot to the tree owner- current market price where I work as a bench carpenter $6-10 range/board foot for clear white oak… seems the tree owner ought to get a bigger share of that. Takes a looonnnngggg time to grow trees, and a very short time to cut them up into lumber.

When i use to cut timper i would bring the actual receipt back with me and show the owners

Northern Indiana: We cleared 2 acres of old growth white & red oak with hickory & walnut in lesser amounts. I had difficulty finding someone to take the logs.

Never trust a timber buyer

Very nice information, I’ll process my own lumber at that price

Not every plot of land has veneer quality logs even the soil it grows in can effect it like iron in New Jersey in the tri state area an iron nail can ruin a log so many factors. I’m wondering why you don’t just cut in the late fall and winter so as to not have problems with sap running ?

When I built in 2001, I cut 4 white, and 3 red oaks that were between 120, and 150 years old, about 28" to 30" in diameter, over 75 feet tall, that someone said they would give me $1200 for all of them. After 18 months it was split and stacked, and kept my house warm, It was a shame, as I would like to have seen it be put to better use..

more timber guy please he seems cool

I cut a barn beam that has over 300 rings, over 300 years old. After it was shortened splitting began. Wish I knew then about S rings. However it was just for a fireplace mantle

It’s too bad that the moment it goes into the marketplace it becomes disposable. I was at the landfill last week and there was a man throwing away a pickup load of beautiful oak trim from a remodel project.

You packed a lot of information into that five minute video.

Most costs are processing. What are yard wide white pines worth? I’ve got lots of them. Selling the land so might as well make a bit more from the trees.

Seller: this is the greatest log in the world ! Buyer : I'll take it off your hand as a favor,not great.

I know an Amish guy that owns a sawmill in my town. He is a millionaire. The guys cutting the trees, and driving the skidders and log trucks are not.

I live in a residential neighborhood in Baltimore County, MD. We have lost hundreds of 100+ yro White Oaks in the past ten years. As far as I know the wood has only been used as firewood. Seems like such a shame it could not have been used for building things out of.

OK Nate!

I own a tree company on cape cod Massachusetts. my self and all my competitor tree company’s which is a lot of tree companies all dump nice oak and pitch pine log lengths at local pit where it is all put in tub grinders and turned into mulch .. it does kill me seeing all this nice wood turned to mulch, but there isn’t a market here on cape cod . I know of 1 or 2 people with small sawmills .. I try to save as much as I can for firewood.. wish we could re purpose some of this nice wood .. any ideas ?!?

Did you have any red oak cut. Just curious on what that brings per board ft to landowner compared to white.?

If he is paying you $1.50 he’s probably getting around $4-5 a board foot , but he is also got the overhead of getting it ready and to the mill

Over explicit years of recourse 😊

We have a lot of white oaks from 5' to over 7' in diameter. Some red oaks are nearly 7'. Virginia Tech is going to send some people to measure and record them.

People you have to understand that not all timber are the same prices trust me i have cut and sold alot of timber

Oak don't bring any where near that here in Oklahoma. 30 cents a bf is closer to right. Worth more as fire wood than saw logs

Lumber price $8 to $11 a board ft

In my shop, $$$$ once turned into fine furniture!

I’ve got 30 acres of untouched woods in western Kentucky I bought in 2017 for 47k. Might be time to invest in a sawmill.

From a loggers standpoint if you shop around and make the buyers bid you can get $5 to $6 a board foot out of the veneer. The second and third cut if it has any quality at all has been averaging $3.30 a board foot. Hickory need to be cut in the winter. There’s a market in Italy and they average $2.00 a foot but you need to find a good exporter and give the land owner 1/2 of all the grade price. 1/3 on the pallet logs or it’s not worth messing with. Walnut has cooled down a little bit and is bringing about $2.60 a board foot. Red oak has come back to $0.70 a foot for tie logs. Not really worth the trouble. Be honest and you will have moor work than you can handle

Did you say $1.25 - $1.50/tree to the property owner?

When the Japanese and Germans buy logs the almost exclusively buy veneer logs. Some buyers will have a veneer mill and a sawmill setup on the ship. By the time they get to their respective countries they’ve processed all the logs. I had a tractor and log trailer with a knuckle boom loader back in the 80’s. One time the German buyer hired me to sit on my loader and unload trucks and load the logs into gondola cars on the trail. I had 36 cars loaded with white oak headed for the port of Baltimore to be loaded onto ships. It’s a rough business to make any money.

I got ripped off then I bought a sawmill and now I do the ripping. Not off just ripping boards and building my home.

Where are you located?

You need to know how to grade logs and lumber hardwood

You did not address how many years to grow these trees. Select harvest is how it used to be done. Ask how it is done today.

Is that $1.50 per board foot? or 1.50 per tree?

I want to know how much the logging company will give me for a white or red oak.

What would you pay for whole Osage Orange logs, per bd ft? Roughly..

The problem is people clear cutting a whole forest. Geez man leave a few for animals to have cover getting from field to field. It’s not corn. That forest is never coming back. Also if you think you can take all those nutrients that make a big oak out of the soil and have just the same nutrients as before you’re crazy.

If there is no sawmill around, they cost money to get rid of. We found that out. Stay safe.

The walnuts i have i tap for syrup

The truth is that a live tree is priceless. As soon as we cut it down we have destroyed it’s value.

Knew a biologist that worked for a forestry company. Basically hired to pass enviro regs etc. He quit because they were so dishonest and he just couldnt take it anymore

I have a $30,000 canary palm tree in my backyard

It should be used for firewood! ;)

Wow... they pay nothing compared to what you end up paying for that wood at Home Depot. It's like 20X more.

In the past, the logs were cut by the logger, the logger brings them to where they are auctioned, or brought to the mill. Then money is paid to the landholder. Whom pays for road repair, is a matter of debate, but usually the logger, unless the loggers wife is pregnant, lol.

A white oak is worth everything to the deer and other animals that feed on its acorns every fall

Get em all , then I'll sell and you will pay my price. Those trees are over 300 years old folks. Wait ten year then get a price.

It's a good thing the return for the trees to the landowner is not that good or there would be more trees of size anywhere. Our trees today are not the massive giants that once stood before the the forest were turned into fields for crops, towns and cities.

Commercial contractor here. We're doing some remodels and a customer wants white oak plywood and caps for the plywood we've been paying $15,000 per store just for materials. All white oak.

White Oak is most valuable when it is in the ground!

It's worth $10 but they'll charge you $30,000

Furniture grade construction grade and industrial grade 😊

He's calling them defects, it's the grain of the wood. It's the best part of using wood.

Took a shit on the video with music

At 1.25 per board foot at 550 board foot in that particular tree Is $687.50 for ONE LOG ??

Red oak prices? Anybody..have 130 trees like the ones in the video..