An independent, professional timber cruise is an invaluable investment both in the management planning and timber sale phases of a forest stand. It provides information regarding stand density (trees per acre…TPA), size, health, vigor, quality, product distribution, competition levels, site productivity and a host of other characteristics that are critical in good decision making. 
H&H has inventoried in excess of 150,000 acres of land from New York to Georgia and west to the Mississippi River for private landowners, investors, pension funds, government and forest industry. The most important aspect of any timber cruise is that it provides the desired information at an acceptable level of accuracy at a price to meet the clients’ budget. H&H has the experience across the entire range of sampling intensities and using dozens of primary design approaches to know what works and what doesn’t. When coupled with other in house expertise such as remote sensing, digital aerial photography and geographic information system mapping, our inventory services not only provide the exact information needed, but do so at a highly efficient and competitive price.
Day in and day out, H&H’s timber sale cruises play out with consistent accuracy as proven by our timber sales track record of less than 7.5% difference between appraised value and actual sale receipts. In nearly every case, our sale value estimate places 2nd in competitive bidding on lump sum sales. Just about any buyer or seller would agree that the second place bid best represents the true value of a stand of timber. Despite what some consultants and landowner groups may promote, a lump sum sealed bid does not always reveal a tract’s true market value. 
In many cases, market conditions beyond the control or knowledge of a seller can have a dramatic effect on bid values and bid participation. One of the best examples of this is when multiple sealed bid sales open on the same day. Buyers often cannot place top dollar on more than one sale, until they know the outcome of their previous committed bids. Having a good timber cruise and valuation in cases such as these can help make the tough decisions about whether to accept the highest bid or to reject the bids and “no sale” the tract. Without confidence in the estimated value or if selling without a cruise at all, landowners will often accept a price below the true value of their timber.
At other stages of the management process a timber cruise can be equally important. Landowners have lost millions of dollars of missed opportunity cost by being unaware of the conditions in their timber stands. The consequences of failing to release a pine plantation from hardwood competition or precommercially thinning to a viable density all too frequently go undiscovered until the owner thinks the stand should be ready to thin. Often these landowners are left with little or no options for recovering the stand.
Situations such as these could be easily prevented with a low cost, low intensity, systematic inspection of their stands by a professional forester.
So don’t sell your stand short or miss critical opportunities to implement needed or beneficial management treatments on your timber. Trust the professionals at H&H to design and implement a cruise strategy to meet your needs.
Forest inventory fees can be billed on a project basis as a fixed price, per hour, per acre or per plot depending on the nature of the project and desire of the client.