I've got a 50 acre tract that 90% of the timber was destroyed during the hurricane . Had a consultant take a look and give me a quote to write up the value of the damaged timber and what it would take to be salvaged . My question is at 750$ to 800$ for the write up seem steep?

$10/acre is what I’ve been quoted

Depends on the intensity. Most cruisers get paid per cruise plot. They range from 10-$35/plot. With that estimate, I'd guess he is planning on spending a day on the project. Sounds reasonable.

That seems like a fair price, especially if he plans to crawl through some of the down timber taking plots in it. We are going to have a crew working around Blountstown next week doing the same thing on a much larger scale.

He gonna charge you $800 for a couple hours work.

Ya if i can make $750 a day giving wood quotes I'm gonna become a wood quoter

Correct

And spend the rest of the day telling you how crooked loggers and sawmillers are

Mans gotta pay for that Auburn University degree

I’m an Auburn fan but the foresters we have hired straight out of school don’t know much about hardwood timber.Now if your looking at pine there good. Cruising storm damaged timber sucks.

The fella didn't even leave the road it took me 3 days on a chainsaw and tractor to clear (tracked him). Suppose to meet him up there in a few days so we will see.

My thought as well

Need to hire a UT man.

That price is cheap for cruising storm damaged timber. Having done casualty loss assessments following Ivan and Katrina I can tell you it ain't no walk in the park. Getting the required work done to be able to claim a casualty loss will be especially beneficial considering the difficulties recovering from catastrophic storms. You deserve a break because your most likely not going to get one from any salvage logging efforts, plus loss of grade, and minimal stumpage, if you're fortunate enough to get a crew for the salvage efforts. My heart goes out to you in recovering from this storm...it is sometimes a long road to recovery. For casualty losses the deductible loss is the lesser of the decrease in fair market value of the single identifiable property, or the adjusted basis of the single identifiable property minus any insurance proceeds, salvage, or other compensation received. Take pictures and document your efforts to solicit logging crews to salvage the downed timber. I hope that you are able to get your timber salvaged...if the same event occurred in my area a significant amount would most likely rot.


Good Luck !

C'mon my turkey killing friend Brent! It's just like any business, there's some good and honest people and there's also some that will take advantage. I deal with loggers and timber buyers every day and have a good relationship with most of them.

Our guys will be taking fixed radius cruise plots in downed timber next week to help determine the amount of timber lost over a large tract of land to help a client with their timber casualty loss deduction. This is on a place with a previous timber inventory so they are only having to tally the standing timber but will still be crawling through all the junk trying to work.
When someone calls like this who did not have a timber inventory prior to the storm damage the only way to do it properly is to crawl through the mess taking plots and tell someone how much timber they had before and after the storm.

Cruising storm damage wood is the pits!

After hurricane Eloise in 1975 we had to cruise a lot of the IP land in NW Fl. One tract was the East River Island, about 5,000 acres that was long line logged in the early 1900's. All day long we were down into the long line channels full of water and up on the little hills. A real pain in the ass with the blown down timber in there.
With Michael one of the biggest changes is the lack of delivery points for the damaged timber. A lot of sawmills and the St Joe paper mill are gone, plus a lot of good logging crews have gone out of business. Millions of tons of damaged timber will never be utilized. The Panama City mill did start up one side a little over a week ago and the other machine should be back up this week.

I don’t even know what you do but I almost can guarantee you, that you make $750/day in gross income. That is only $200k in gross income, annually. Deduct operational expenses, capital expenses, healthcare and other benefits, and your well south of $100k in salary.

That does bring up a good point. Be sure your forester is registered in the state the land is located. Most accountants won’t accept anything less. The IRS surely will question it under audit.

I c what your saying and it's easy for a business to gross that a day but there's not much expense in giving a quote I grossed over 2mil a year last few years and netted not much lol I sold it this year cuz it wasnt worth it and do dirt work and cattle now...