Selling Logs

So I get this question all the time. Is my tree worth anything? The short answer is no. Tree the grow in yards, AKA "yard logs", do not grow the same as trees the grow in the woods. They do not grow tall and straight and often have braches lower to the base. This is becasue the get more sun and require more protection. There is also more of a chance that they have metal in them. Logs are graded based on many different factors. For example Black Walnut trees have diiferent amounts of sapwood. This is the living outer layer of a tree. The prime time part of a Walnut is the Black heartwood. We recently removed 9 fairly mature Walnuts in Berryville, Virginia. The customer could have cared less what we did with them. I explained that there might be some value in the logs and that if I could find the right buyer it wouldn offset some of his cost. I also told him to not get his hopes up. With all my resources I could not find anyone to even come look. I wound up giving them to a local guy with a woodmill he had just purchased. He was thrilled but also knew the value of these logs was low. Out of all those tree and about 50 logs there were about 2 that produced decent lumber. There are tons of people oput there looking for specific varying pieces of wood, sure but how many are willing to pay and travel. mills are looking for specific lengths of logs. It is not alwasy easy to move these sized logs out of a yard without heavy equipment that may potentially damage a yard. It also cost money to move big wood and is only worth it if moving a good bit at a time. Then once at a mill it has to be cut and dried. It takes up to 2 years to properly dry lumber without a kilne. A lot of room is required to store all these logs. I have found that if someone is willing toi take the logs it is better to just offer them for free. This is how we have built up so many relationships around Winchester and Berryville. It gives us free spots to dump certain types of wood. We in turn can charge our customers less becasue we are not traveling as far or paying to dump. Are some logs valuble? Yes but a lot of work goes into making them profitable. I alsways explain it like this... If logs were easy and that profitable I would have Benn storing and selling them for years. The reality is at the end of the day we often have to pay to dump them. We do try and give them to someone who will use them as firewood but this isn't always a viable solution either.