Guides
Public timber sales, explained
How the numbers on this site work: what stumpage is, how public timber auctions run, the MBF and CCF units, how to read a sale packet, and what bidder counts and premiums tell you. Each guide is built on the same live board as the rest of the site, so the examples are real and current.
Timber sale basics
What is stumpage?
The stumpage definition is a short one: stumpage is the price of standing timber, the trees still on the stump before anyone cuts them. In a public timber sale the buyer pays the agency for the right to cut and haul the marked trees, and the winning price per MBF or CCF is the headline stumpage number this site tracks.
How public timber auctions work
A public timber auction runs in a fixed order: the agency cruises and appraises the tract, advertises it with a sale packet, takes sealed or oral bids at or above the appraised minimum, and awards it to the high bidder. Washington DNR and BLM sell in MBF and the Forest Service in CCF, and each publishes its results in its own place.
How stumpage is appraised
Stumpage is appraised before a sale is advertised, and the appraised value becomes the minimum bid. Methods differ by agency: Oregon works residually from mill pond value minus logging cost, and the Forest Service runs transaction evidence appraisal against a published base index. Washington and Montana set an appraised value the winning bid has to clear by statute.
What does successful bidder mean at a public timber sale?
At a public timber sale the successful bidder is the bidder the agency awards the contract to, which is usually but not automatically the high bidder. Between the bid opening and the signed contract the agency accepts the bid, checks the bidder and collects deposits and bonds, and the terms high bidder, apparent high bidder, successful bidder and purchaser mark those steps.
How log prices differ from stumpage prices
A delivered log price is what a mill pays for cut logs at its yard, per MBF of log scale by species and grade, while a stumpage price is what the standing timber sold for at auction. The gap covers logging, hauling and the buyer's margin, and on one Oregon state sale in September 2026 it came to $126.21 per MBF.
How Washington DNR timber sale auctions work
Washington DNR sells state trust-land timber by sealed bid at a monthly auction, Tuesday through Thursday at its region offices, after posting each sale's notice, maps, draft contract and cruise online. A monthly results sheet then lists each sale's minimum, high bid, price per MBF, bid count and apparent high bidder.
Reading the numbers
What is an MBF?
MBF means one thousand board feet, the unit both lumber and standing timber are measured and priced in, and a board foot is a piece of wood an inch thick and a foot square. State timber sells by the MBF and Forest Service timber by the CCF, a hundred cubic feet, two units this site never averages together.
Timber sale prospectus: how to read a sale packet
A timber sale packet, or prospectus, gives the volume by species, the minimum price, how bids are taken, the deposit, the contract term and the road and logging work the buyer takes on. Agencies print those fields in different units and forms, so read the unit and the sale type before comparing any number.
Bid intensity: what bidder counts tell you
Bid intensity is how hard buyers competed for a tract, read from two numbers together: how many bidders showed up and how far the winning bid ran over the appraised minimum. A crowded sale at a big premium means real demand, a lone bidder at the floor or a no-bid sale means little, and no single agency publishes the two across sales.
What happens if only one bidder shows up at a timber auction?
If only one bidder shows up at a public timber auction, the sale usually still goes ahead: one bid at or above the appraised minimum is valid, and the lone bidder wins at the price it offered. What a single bidder changes is the price, because nobody bids it up, so single-bidder sales on this site's board close far nearer their minimum than contested ones.
Timber price per ton vs per MBF: how the units differ
A timber price per ton is dollars per ton of log weight, while a price per MBF is dollars per thousand board feet, a log-rule estimate of the lumber in the logs. The tons in an MBF change with species, log size and moisture, so a per-ton rate converts to a per-MBF rate only with a factor built for that same timber.
Programs and markets
BLM vs USFS vs state trust-land timber sales: how the programs differ
BLM sells western Oregon O&C timber under a 1937 sustained-yield law, the Forest Service sells national-forest timber as one use among several, and state agencies sell trust and state forest timber for revenue under their own laws. Their prices are not directly comparable, because the units, the terms and the road and restoration work all differ.
Timber prices by species: Douglas-fir vs ponderosa
Species sets the ceiling on what standing timber brings, because each wood sells into its own market at its own price. On one BLM sale in Linn County advertised for November 2026, the same ground was appraised at $397.90 per MBF for Douglas-fir and $186.60 for hemlock.
From auction to mill: the timber supply chain
Between the winning bid and the mill deck sit four steps, the award, the logging, the haul and the scale at the mill, and each takes a cut of what the timber is worth. Haul distance is the heavy one, because a long road to the nearest mill eats the residual that becomes stumpage, which is why the same tract draws different bidders depending on who is close.