Timberland
Timberland, in U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis reporting, is unreserved forest land capable of producing 20 cubic feet of wood per acre per year from trees classified as timber species and designated as a timber forest type. It excludes reserved forest land and forest land kept from wood production by statute or administrative designation, such as wilderness areas.
Two exclusions decide whether wooded ground counts
The word gets used loosely. The U.S. Forest Service uses it precisely, as a reporting term in its Forest Inventory and Analysis program, usually shortened to FIA.
FIA defines timberland as unreserved forest land capable of producing 20 cubic feet of wood per acre per year, from trees classified as timber species and designated as a timber forest type. Two kinds of wooded ground fall outside it however well the trees grow: reserved forest land, and forest land that is not managed for wood products because a statute or an administrative designation says so, such as a wilderness area.
Behind that sits a broader category. FIA counts an area as forest land at all only if it is at least 120 feet wide, at least an acre in size, and at least 10 percent covered by live trees. A half-acre grove does not clear that bar, whatever it looks like from the road.
Timberland in this sense is a federal reporting definition, not a Virginia legal category.
Virginia's forest use standard is a separate test, for a separate purpose
Virginia's land use tax program asks a different question, for a different reason, and the two tests are not interchangeable.
Virginia defines forest use as land, including the standing timber on it, devoted to tree growth under standards the State Forester sets. Those standards require at least 20 acres. For productive forest land, commercially valuable trees must make at least 40 percent normal stocking, and the land must be growing a commercial forest crop that is physically accessible for harvesting when mature; recently harvested land that is being regenerated and not developed for nonforest use is also eligible. The standards separately describe nonproductive forest land, and the owner certifies intent with a signed commitment or a plan prepared by a professional forester. How the whole program works is laid out in the land use program guide.
So a tract under 20 acres can meet the federal test and still fall short of the state's forest use minimum. The two tests also measure different things: the federal one asks what the land is capable of producing, and the state one asks about acreage, stocking, access and the owner's certified intent.
Planted evergreens raise their own version of the question. Whether Christmas tree ground is taken as agricultural, horticultural or forest use is the Commissioner of the Revenue's decision, and how a Christmas tree farm is valued takes that up.
A capacity to grow wood says little about the trees standing today
Calling a tract timberland says the ground can grow wood at a meaningful rate. It says nothing about what is standing on it right now.
A large wooded tract can hold a mature hardwood stand on one slope and young regrowth in an old field on another. A buyer weighing the timber looks at each of those separately, and the timberland label answers none of those questions on its own. Getting from standing trees to a number takes a measurement of the wood itself and, eventually, a written sale, which how timber is valued walks through.
The land and the standing timber can belong to different owners
Timberland describes the ground's capacity to grow wood. It does not settle who owns the wood standing on it.
A seller who sold the standing timber earlier, or reserved it in an earlier deed, is not offering the same thing as a seller who still owns every tree on the tract. Timber rights covers that separation.
Selling a wooded tract as timberland?
Tell us the county and how much of the tract is in woods. Lowell will read the tract as land first and point you to a forester for the timber figure. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions about this term
Do natural woods count as timberland, or only planted forest?
The federal definition quoted on this page says nothing about how the trees got there. It turns on whether the land is unreserved forest land, at least 120 feet wide and an acre in size with at least 10 percent live tree cover, and capable of producing 20 cubic feet of wood per acre per year from trees classified as timber species.
Can wooded land drop out of the timberland category without being cut?
Under the federal reporting definition, yes. Forest land that a statute or an administrative designation, such as a wilderness designation, keeps from being managed for wood products is excluded from timberland even while its trees stand. That is a change in how the land is reported, not a change on the ground.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Forest Inventory and Analysis: Forest Definitions USDA Forest Service
- 4VAC10-20: standards for classification of real estate as devoted to forest use Virginia Administrative Code
- Va. Code 58.1-3230: definitions (agricultural, horticultural, forest and open-space use) Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 58.1-3233: determinations by the assessing officer Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 10.1-1162: Seed Tree Law definitions (owner of timber, owner of timber rights) Code of Virginia