Heres what I know in Central WI. Use a private forester. Many available, and I'd talk to 3 or 4 before pulling the trigger. Most of the paper companies have them and will do an evaluation for free. Other private foresters charge a small fee. Species of trees really won't matter until your talking about saw logs. Mixed northern hardwood pulp (maple, ash, hickory, birch etc)should produce about $35/cord +\-. Popple and basswood less. In a clear cut situation expect $800-$1200/acre. Less than that in a select harvest. Expect to split the price of saw logs with the logger 50/50. Price is wildly variable depending on species, grading quality and what any particular mill is looking for. My experience is that under 40 acres you will have to look hard to find someone to cut. Be prepared to pay them to get there, it's expensive to move equipment. For example, recently I had a client with 6 acres of hardwood, clear cut for food plots. In total produced $6800 in revenue to him. Paid the logger $1900 of that to move his equipment in and out. Cost an additional $12,000 in dozer/excavator work to create a new road and stump and clear the food plots. I agree that as a private landowner, you should cut when you need to cut and not try to play the price market. You will never make enough money on your timber to make an appreciable improvement in your land investment unless you are specifically managing large (1000+ acre tracts) specifically for timber. On the other hand, the habitat improvements that logging can provide will improve your long term value significantly. Think about looking at hunting land, are you looking at the merchantable trees or are you looking at how many deer the land can hold, the availability to plant food plots and the overall quality of bucks? I'd argue the latter and that's what drives hunting land prices.
