FORMEC 2026

Timber Harvesting Challenges on Small Family Forests in Northern Minnesota, USA

17 Sept 2026, 13:50

20m

L 301 - L301 (CZU Prague, Czechia)

Oral presentation Paralel session 6

Speaker

Charlie Blinn (University of Minnesota)

Description

One-third of forestland ownerships in Minnesota are comprised of privately-owned, family forests. The majority (65%) of those family forests are found on less than 8-hectare parcels and the owners of which commonly have alternative land stewardship objectives that differ from traditional forest management goals. Timber harvesting as a management objective is universally low in priority for small family forest owners, yet it is often still required to achieve many of the landowner’s other stewardship objectives. A logging business owner makes various decisions based on economic factors when considering a timber sale purchase; but they may also consider other factors particular to their business characteristics. All these considerations become increasingly important as the size of a timber sale decreases and may become barriers to implementing a timber harvest on small family forests.

Northern Minnesota logging business owners were surveyed to collect individual business-specific data regarding factors affecting their decisions to purchase small-sized timber sales, barriers to harvesting timber on small tracts, and the general characteristics of their business. Results suggest that some logging businesses may be more readily adaptable to harvesting on small family forests. A logging business whose annual production was <3,625 cubic meters and used a chainsaw as a primary felling method was the most likely to purchase a timber sale of 725 cubic meters and less. While they generally target purchasing higher volume timber sales, larger producing businesses annually complete more of these small sales than the smaller logging businesses. The most important factor for a larger logging business’ consideration to purchase a small timber sale is whether the sale is adjacent to another larger and available timber sale. If the family forest tract is not adjacent to another timber sale, the lowest volume producers appear to be the most likely to purchase the sale.