This post supports topics addressed in the (virtual) Applied Forest Finance course on May 16th, 2023 and the Forisk Research Quarterly. Mathematically, averages specify the arithmetic mean. Calculating an average represents one of many approaches for profiling data when conducting analysis, or for establishing baselines or trends in the marketplace. In addition, averages themselves come in different forms. When conducting forest industry research and timber market analysis at Forisk, we often use rolling and weighted averages to better leverage underlying data. These approaches also inform our ..read more

This post is the second in a series related to the Q2 2023 Forisk Research Quarterly (FRQ) which includes forest industry analysis, timber price forecasts, and featured research on western silviculture. It provides an excerpt from the U.S. South regional summary, which includes timber price, demand, and supply outlooks by state. Private timberland owners, including timber investors, public timberland companies, forest industry, and individuals/families, own 4.4 billion tons of standing pine timber in the U.S. South. The timber inventory consists of 2.7 billion tons (62%) of sawtimber and ..read more

Backcourt As March approaches, much of the nation gets excited for basketball madness. At Forisk, March also marks a time to review the previous year. This time last year, we noted that timberland transactions bounced back in 2021. For context, total sales jumped more than a million acres in 2021, rising 61% from 2020 to just under 2.8 million acres. At the time, this represented the largest single-year change since 2016. Much of this sales volume (~45%) took place in the U.S. West. The South accounted for 38% and the Northern U.S. comprised the balance. By all accounts, 2021 was a rebound yea ..read more

This post is the second in a series related to the Q1 2023 Forisk Research Quarterly (FRQ). It includes topics that will also be addressed in the (virtual) Applied Forest Finance course on May 16th, 2023. What a difference a century can make. Forestry in the United States, one hundred years ago, featured massive wildfires, aggressive conversion to agriculture, and harvest levels exceeding timber growth. Today, while we still have wildfires, the forest sector is characterized by more intensive management and forest growth markedly exceeding harvest levels. The current timberland sector als ..read more