If you own wooded acreage in Michigan, you already know how valuable it can be for hunting! According to the U.S. Forest Service’s National Woodland Owner Survey, hunting is among the most common recreational activities on family-owned forest lands, with improving wildlife habitat being a top priority for many forest landowners.
With about 45% of Michigan’s 20 million acres of forested land owned and managed by families, we help you manage your forests for long-term enjoyment and improve their natural habitat for both recreational and hunting use.
Here’s how selective timber harvesting can keep your forest healthy, attract more deer, and generate revenue to offset your yearly property taxes!
Benefits of Timber Harvesting for Your Hunting Land
Aside from keeping your forest healthy for generations to come, selective timber harvesting provides many benefits for landowners, especially when using your acreage as a hunting property.
Improve Deer Habitat
In Michigan and other parts of the Midwest, deer thrive in forested areas where there’s a healthy balance of open space and protected cover. Closed-canopy forests—where mature trees block most of the sunlight—tend to suppress the undergrowth that deer rely on for food.
By selectively harvesting mature trees, you can reduce canopy cover to around 20%–50%, allowing more sunlight to reach the forest floor. This promotes the growth of side cover, which is essential for effective deer habitat improvement.
Encourage New Growth for Deer Feeding
When mature trees are selectively harvested, new growth (called regeneration) takes hold in the open spaces. These young plants, shrubs, and hardwood sprouts are great forage for deer. In fact, managed forests can produce up to five times more food for deer than unmanaged ones! This new growth in the clearings attracts deer by providing a food source—and thick cover for bedding and protection.
Create Natural Bedding Areas or Food Plots
Selective harvesting is one of the most effective ways to naturally improve deer habitat without planting anything. By removing specific trees and opening up the canopy, more sunlight reaches the forest floor, encouraging the growth of new grasses, shrubs, and young trees—which deer rely on for both food and cover.
Bedding Areas
Deer prefer to bed in areas that offer thick cover and protection from predators and the elements. With selective harvesting, you encourage dense regrowth of saplings and shrubs, offering concealment and allowing deer to bed close to natural food sources.
Natural Food Plots
Deer are also attracted to areas with abundant native forage. Selective cuts allow native vegetation to flourish, including woody browse like sapling regrowth from species like oak or maple. These are valuable food sources, especially in the colder fall and winter months.
Offset Property Taxes with Timber Revenue Generation
Selective timber harvesting is one of the best ways to make money from your raw land. Many Midwest landowners are surprised to learn that they can reduce their tax burden by managing their woodlots for timber production! Revenue generated by selling your trees directly to a sawmill can help offset your annual property taxes, and if done responsibly, your forest will continue to regenerate for future harvests and habitat improvement.
Programs like Michigan’s Qualified Forest Program (QFP) can also reduce your property tax liability if you have a forest management plan in place.
Why Selling to a Sawmill is Most Profitable
Compared to other types of timber buyers, selling directly to the mill will guarantee that you make the highest direct profit from your woodlot. See how selling mill direct compares to working with brokers, consulting foresters, and loggers:
- Brokers (Middle Men)
- Don’t cut your timber themselves
- Resell cutting rights to third-party sawmills
- Make money by reselling your timber to other sawmills for more money
- Consulting Foresters
- Work with landowners to sell timber to sawmills
- Take a percentage of sale proceeds (an average of 15–20%)
- Loggers
- Will cut your timber, but they do not actually use the wood
- Resell your timber in log form to sawmills on a 60/40 split with the landowner
- Example: If a 100k bdft job has a value of $100,000, the landowner would get $60,000 and the logger/producer would get $40,000. The $40,000 would be the cost of cutting/selling your timber.
- Selling Mill Direct
- Allows you to bypass middlemen or brokers
- Allows you to negotiate directly with the sawmill and receive higher prices for your timber
- Example: On a 100k bdft job valued at $100,000, a company logging crew would receive between $125 to $150 PT to cut timber, which would equal $15,000. The landowner would receive the remainder of $85,000. That’s $15,000 more for their timber just for selling direct to a sawmill!
How to Sustainably Harvest Timber on Your Acreage
Harvesting timber selectively focuses on removing mature trees while leaving healthy ones to grow. Unlike clear-cutting, the goal of selective cutting is to mimic natural disturbance patterns, allowing sunlight in and encouraging a layered forest structure.
Selective timber harvesting is the harvesting method we follow at Buskirk Lumber. Selective cutting is a sustainable practice that removes only specific trees based on factors such as size, age, species, and health. This approach ensures that forests remain productive and ecologically balanced.
Plan your harvest for the summer or winter, when the ground is hard or dry for best results. To learn more about the process or get an appraisal for selective harvesting, send us a message!
Turn Your Land into a Premier Hunting Property with Selective Harvesting
Buskirk Lumber is a Michigan-based sawmill and buyer of standing timber. Sustainably harvesting Michigan’s hardwoods since 1920, we help you not only improve your stand for hunting or recreation but also make significant profits in the meantime.
Buskirk Lumber is located in Freeport, Michigan, and services Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, Indiana, Ohio, and throughout the Midwest.
To find the value of the timber on your acreage as you prepare your hunting property, send us a message online or give us a call at (800) 860-WOOD.
