How to Calculate Maple Stumpage Value

Whether you’re selling a single maple tree or a small forest of them, you should calculate the stumpage value of the wood to determine how much profit you’re likely to receive. Stumpage value is the amount of money cleared from the sell after you take into account the costs of cutting, shipping and converting the maple into lumber. However, in order to know how much each tree is worth, first you need to calculate how much commercially usable wood each tree contains. To do this, you’ll need to perform a few calculations to find the board feet available for use in the tree, according to the cubic area of the tree wood.

Tape measure
Wooden lath
Pencil
Calculator

Instructions

- 1
  Measure the diameter of the tree at a height of 4 1/2-feet up the tree’s trunk using a tape measure.
- 2
  Place pencil lines across the width of a piece of wood lath every 4 inches. Walk a distance of 50 feet from the tree, and select a position where you can see the tree fully. Hold out the piece of lath so that it’s 25-inches in front of you and lined up with the tree trunk. Adjust the position of the lath so that the bottom of the lath looks as though it’s placed about 1 foot above the tree base. Count the number of 4-inch penciled lines that the tree rises on the stick.
- 3
  Multiply the number of lath lines by eight to determine the height of the tree in feet that contains commercially usable lumber. For a Black Maple tree extending up the lath stick eight lines, for example, you would multiply the 8 lines by 8, giving you a tree height of 64 feet.
- 4
  Divide the tree diameter that you took by two, and then square that number. Multiply this by 3.1415 to get the area of the tree at the breast height. Multiply that result by the height in feet of commercially usable lumber, and then multiply that result by 0.7 to obtain the cubic volume of the tree. Multiply this volume by 12, and you’ll have the board feet in lumber contained in the maple.
  
  For example, if the tree is 3 feet in diameter and a height of 64 feet, divide the 3 by 2 to get a result of 1.5. Square the result for a total of 2.25. Multiply the 2.25 by 3.1415 for an area at breast height of 7.0683 feet. Multiply this by the tree height of 64 feet for a result of 452.376, and then multiply the result by 0.7 to calculate a cubic volume of 316.6632 feet. Calculate the board feet in lumber from the cubic feet by multiplying the 316.6632 cubic volume in feet by 12 for a total of 3799 board feet available for sale.
- 5
  Find a buyer for maple lumber. Obtain the price per board feet that they purchase lumber at to determine the commercial value for your tree. Subtract the estimated cost of harvesting the tree as well as transport costs and any conversion costs at a lumberyard to turn the raw tree into lumber to determine the stumpage value.

How to Cut With a Chainsaw From Within a Tree

How to Grow Almonds in a Humid Climate

Trees