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Timber Sales

Pennsylvania’s state forests contain an abundance of high-quality forest products, an integral part of the materials base of the commonwealth’s $19 billion per year forest products industry.

Both Pennsylvania’s consumers and the general economy benefit from this regionally important supply of forest products, including timber.

DCNR’s Bureau of Forestry offers for sale more than 70 million board feet of timber per year.

Timber harvested from Pennsylvania’s state forests is SFI® and FSC® certified.

This ensures that the chain-of-custody from the forestland to the mill can be continued, and that products are coming from forests managed in an environmentally responsible manner.

Bidding for State Forest Timber Sales

More than 180 timber sales are available to eligible buyers to bid on annually. DCNR’s timber sales are sold by sealed bids that are opened during a public bid opening at a scheduled time and date.

A complete listing of bid openings and recently awarded bids for timber stumpage sales on state forest land is available.

Additional information, including contact information, for individual sales can be located within that sale’s prospectus.

Resources for bidders include:

No-Bid Sales

No-Bid Sales are timber sales that did not receive a bid that exceeded the predetermined minimum bid value. These sales are available for purchase.

Because the bid opening date for these sales has passed, certain information in the prospectus will be out of date.

For current information about a no-bid sale, please contact the state forest district where the sale is located.

Timber Revenues

Supplying a consistent yield of forest products to the market from state forest land helps promote stability in this sector of Pennsylvania’s economy and keeps sawmills and other wood product industries operational, even during poor economic times when timber stumpage prices are low.

Harvesting consistent yields of timber from state forest land also helps stabilize revenues for DCNR’s Bureau of Forestry over time.

All revenue from timber receipts go into the bureau’s operating budget.

Timber sales generate significant revenue for the commonwealth.

From 2008 to 2015, Pennsylvania received income from timber sales averaging more than $22 million.