Timber harvesting involves planning harvest and reforestation; cutting trees and moving them to a landing; processing, sorting and loading; and transporting materials.

How is timber harvested?

A forest worker uses a chainsaw to cut down trees.

Trees are cut down in the forest and then transported by truck to a timber saw mill where the trees are debarked (bark stripped off) and cut up into smaller pieces. Sometimes this is all done in the forest or plantation.

How much money can you make harvesting timber?

It usually takes around 20 to 30 years for trees to fully mature. Depending on the type of trees and the market when the timber is sold, you could earn $500 to $2000 per acre (at $1500, you would be looking at $60 per year in income if you were to annualize it over 25 years).