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. Read the unit and the sale type first: a Montana minimum is dollars per ton, a Washington lump sum minimum is a total for the whole sale, and an Oregon minimum is a rate on one species.

What is in the packet

The name changes by agency and the contents less so. Washington DNR posts a notice of sale, map, contract, road plan and cruise data for each sale. The Oregon Department of Forestry publishes a notice of timber sale with maps. BLM runs an advertisement and timber sale notice and posts a prospectus online. The Forest Service gives each sale its own page with the newspaper ad, prospectus, bid form, sample contract, sale area map and volume summary. Montana DNRC combines a notice of sale and prospectus.

The contract is the document that binds. The Forest Service prospectus for Hobbs (DxP) calls itself "not a legally binding document" and says that where it contradicts the sample contract, "the contract governs." Montana's prospectus says the same of its own contract.

Volume by species

Volume is a cruise estimate, broken out by species because species sets most of a sale's value (timber prices by species shows how much). The Forest Service and Montana both state that their quantities are estimates and are not guaranteed.

Who carries the difference depends on the sale type. On a lump sum sale the price holds whatever comes off the ground: BLM's Calamity Jane notice makes the purchaser liable for the total price "even though the quantity of timber actually cut or removed or designated for taking is more or less than the estimated volume." On a scaled sale the bill follows the wood. Hobbs (DxP) is a scaled sale, and Montana bills on "a weight ticket from a certified scale" for each load.

The unit can change inside one packet too. Hobbs (DxP) has a volume summary cruised in CCF and a prospectus that sells by the ton. BLM prints Calamity Jane at 11,963 MBF on 16-foot logs and 9,909 MBF on 32-foot logs, and warns readers to allow for that when comparing it with other volume figures. For the units themselves, see what is an MBF and timber price per ton vs per MBF.

The minimum bid

Every agency appraises before it sells and prints the result as a floor, in whatever form it sells. Five real packets, side by side:

Oregon splits a sale into bid species, which take a bid, and no-bid species at fixed rates. The Forest Service takes one weighted average rate. BLM takes a written bid per species, then oral bidding on the species it names. How each floor gets calculated is in how stumpage is appraised.

Deposit, security and term

The deposit goes in with the bid and is returned if the bid loses. The performance security comes later and backs the work: ODF asks for 20 percent of the bid value or the value of the project work, whichever is greater, up to $500,000, and BLM and Montana each ask for at least 20 percent of the total price.

The term sets how long the buyer holds the contract. Stryker runs to the end of 2028. Hobbs (DxP) runs to October 10, 2033, with a normal operating season of June 1 to October 31, so a Forest Service buyer can carry a bid through several years of log markets.

Roads, logging system and fees

These never appear in a results row, and they come out of the buyer's margin before any stumpage is left. Mystree Solved is 35 percent ground-based and 65 percent cable yarding, with three road projects, and ODF credits the buyer $188,293 once that work is accepted. Hobbs (DxP) requires deposits of $0.34 per ton for slash disposal and $1.87 per ton for road maintenance on top of the bid, which is $158,857.01 across its estimated tons. Washington's Reflection carried fees of $150,100 due on sale day and $12 per MBF on removal.

Worked example: Mystree Solved

ODF auctioned Mystree Solved in Tillamook County on October 23, 2026, from its Forest Grove District office. The notice listed:

• 4,188 MBF appraised on 106 acres of mainly 86-year-old Douglas-fir
• Douglas-fir as the only bid species: 3,739 MBF at a minimum of $496.55 per MBF
• fixed rates on the rest: hemlock 328 MBF at $207.60, true firs 86 MBF at $207.60, spruce 25 MBF at $174.48, red alder 10 MBF at $197.03
• sealed bids, a $175,800 deposit and an October 31, 2029 expiration

ODF's results show four bids, with Stimson Lumber high at $2,289,352.49 and Freres Lumber next at $2,226,686.85, on a Douglas-fir rate of $587.61. The packet is what lets you check that:

• Douglas-fir: 3,739 MBF x $587.61 = $2,197,073.79
• Fixed-rate species: $68,092.80 + $17,853.60 + $4,362.00 + $1,970.30 = $92,278.70
• Total: $2,289,352.49, the winning bid to the cent
• Over the minimum on Douglas-fir: $587.61 / $496.55 = 18.3 percent
• Over the minimum on the whole sale: $2,289,352.49 / $1,948,879.15 = 17.5 percent

ODF's results list no minimum and no volume, so only the notice gives you the premium. It also explains the sale's row on the Forest Grove page: 3,896 MBF at $588/MBF. Without a published volume, that row divides the total bid by the Douglas-fir rate, which comes in above the 3,739 MBF of Douglas-fir and below the 4,188 MBF appraised. For the sale's size, the notice is the document to read.

What this site publishes

The calendar above links each advertised sale to its agency's notice and gives the minimum per unit where the agency states one. After the auction, a sale moves to its region page and the board with its winning bid, price, premium, bidder count and high bidder where the agency publishes them. Road clauses, unit maps and logging plans stay in the packet, the document a buyer actually bids from. The site reports the published fields and never advises what to bid.