Which native trees are grown for timber, and how long each takes
The native hardwoods and pines planted for lumber and veneer, the years each takes to harvest, how to space and prune them, and why yard trees seldom sell.
On this page
The timber natives and the years each takesWhat a timber planting asks that a yard tree does notWhy a yard tree seldom goes to the sawmillA forester, the price and the long waitWhere to startCommon questionsSourcesThe native hardwoods grown for sawlogs and veneer are black walnut, black cherry, the white and red oaks, sugar maple and tuliptree. Of the pines grown for lumber, loblolly, the most commercially important in the South, can yield sawtimber at about 35 to 37 years in a plantation thinned once or twice. With good care, black walnut can make a 16-inch sawlog in 30 to 35 years, and on good ground a 20-inch veneer log in 40 to 50. Most other hardwoods take 70 years or more. Each needs its own kind of ground, then spacing, weeding, pruning and thinning.
The timber natives and the years each takes
The years are foresters’ figures and vary with the site. Sugar maple, tuliptree and four of the pines are common natives we do not grow, and we grow the rest.
Fifteen timber natives, A to Z
| Tree | Wood goes to | How long it takes | Ground |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bald cypress | Siding, boat planking, trim, shingles | About 200 years for heartwood lumber | Wet bottoms, or upland soils when planted |
| Black cherry | Furniture wood and veneer | Financially mature at 80–90 years | All but the wettest and driest soils, in cool, moist summers |
| Black locust | Fence posts, poles, railroad ties | Posts in 15–20 years on the best sites | Rich, moist limestone soils |
| Black walnut | Veneer, fine furniture, paneling, gunstocks | 16-inch sawlog in 30–35 years, 20-inch veneer log in 40–50 | Deep, moist, fertile, well-drained, near-neutral soil |
| Cherrybark oak | Furniture and interior finish | Trunk gains 3–6 inches a decade | Loamy, well-drained bottoms and terraces |
| Eastern red cedar | Fence posts and cedar chests | Posts in 20–30 years, sawtimber in 40–60 | Deep, moist, well-drained alluvium and old farmland |
| Eastern white pine | Lumber, furniture, patterns | 40-year rotation in the southern Appalachians | Well-drained sandy soils |
| Loblolly pine | Sawtimber, chip-n-saw, pulpwood | 35–37 years with one or two thinnings | Acid soils with a thick topsoil and poor surface drainage |
| Longleaf pine | Sawtimber and utility poles | 60–80 years for sawtimber | Acid soils, from sandhills to flatwoods |
| Northern red oak | Lumber | 70–100 years for 20- to 24-inch trees in coves | Deep, well-drained loams on lower and middle slopes |
| Shortleaf pine | Lumber, plywood, pulpwood | Seldom grown past 70 in managed stands | A wide range, best on coastal plain soils |
| Slash pine | Sawtimber, veneer logs, naval stores | 16-inch trees in 45–55 years on good sites, with thinning | Moist pond margins and drainages |
| Sugar maple | Saw logs and veneer | 120–160 years or more | Well-drained loams, not dry, shallow soil |
| Tuliptree | Furniture parts, plywood, framing | 70–100 years for 20- to 24-inch trees in coves | Sheltered coves and lower slopes facing north or east |
| White oak | Lumber and barrel staves | 120 years or more, as little as half with early thinning | All but the driest, shallowest soils |
Planted cypress is not old-growth cypress
A planted bald cypress will not give the rot-resistant wood long favored for boats, pilings and siding, which came from old-growth trees. Second-growth cypress lacks that decay-resistant heartwood, and its lumber should be treated where it must resist rot.
What a timber planting asks that a yard tree does not
Timber trees are planted close and thinned as they grow. Walnut for timber and veneer goes on a 10-by-10-foot grid of 436 trees an acre, which five thinnings bring down to 23. Trees per acre at each spacing gives the count for other grids.
Keep grass and weeds off a circle 3 to 4 feet across around each seedling for the first three to five years. Mowing leaves the grass roots competing for water.
Pruning makes a trunk free of knots. Start when a walnut is 10 feet tall, and take its lower branches in the dormant season, before they pass 2 inches thick, until 17 feet of trunk is clear. Prune about 100 of the best trees an acre, and never take more than a quarter of the live crown in one year.
Thinning gives the best trees room, and it shortens the wait:
“But rotation lengths can be shortened by as much as 50 percent and yields increased dramatically if stands are thinned early and regularly, particularly on good sites.” (USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America, White Oak)
A 2024 Mississippi State model planted loblolly at 606 trees an acre. Left unthinned, the plantation was best cut at 28 years, almost all of it pulpwood and chip-n-saw. Thinned once or twice between ages 14 and 20, it was cut at 35 to 37 years with 50 to 67 green tons of sawtimber an acre.
Why a yard tree seldom goes to the sawmill
A tree grown in the open keeps a short trunk under a wide crown, where the same species grown in a forest is tall and straight. Among logs from street trees, the best include walnut, oak and cherry, at least 16 inches across at the small end and 8 feet long.
Most metal in a street tree sits in its lowest 4 to 6 feet, where people hang signs and fasten fences for yards and pastures. Nails, wire and spikes dull and damage saw blades, and a log with much metal in it should not be sold as a sawlog.
A forester, the price and the long wait
A written plan sets when and how much to cut. A consulting forester or the state forester draws one up, and a consultant can later mark and sell the timber. Federal cost-share can pay part of the plan and the planting, as caring for a small woodlot sets out.
When to cut is a span of years that growth and prices move:
“Typically, landowners don’t have a set year in mind to harvest; instead, they have a window of years.” (Mississippi State University Extension Service, Cut or Wait: Decision-Making for Landowners)
Prices are local and they change. The loblolly model above priced pine sawtimber at $22 a ton and pulpwood at $5, from price reports of the two years before its 2024 publication. Walnut veneer has no standard grade, and each buyer judges a tree by its own system. A seller gets a fair price for it through competitive bids.
Where to start
Match the species to the ground first, then have a forester walk the land with you. Blue Whale Trees grows nine of the trees in the table, each as saplings and as acorns, nuts or seed. For the years ahead:
- Growth estimator: it puts a 3-foot black walnut at about 19.5 inches across in 35 years on an average site and about 24 on a good one, as a tree grown in the open.
- How fast native trees grow: what soil, sun, weeds and deer do to a young tree’s growth.
Common questions
How long does it take a black walnut to grow big enough for timber?
With good care on good ground, about 30 to 35 years for a 16-inch sawlog and 40 to 50 for a 20-inch veneer log. A slow-growing tree is best cut as soon as it reaches sawlog size, 12 to 14 inches across.
What is the most valuable native timber tree?
Black walnut, the most valuable timber in the East, whose wood goes to veneer, fine furniture and gunstocks. Black cherry, the only native cherry grown for lumber, is prized for its fine grain and warm reddish brown color.
What are the fastest-growing trees for lumber?
Among natives, loblolly pine, whose stands on many sites grow two or three times the wood of the trees around them. A plantation thinned once or twice can yield sawtimber at about 35 to 37 years.
Can I sell a tree from my yard for lumber?
Seldom. A tree grown in the open keeps a short trunk, and street trees carry most of their nails, wire and spikes in the lowest 4 to 6 feet. Metal dulls and damages saw blades, and a log with much of it should not be sold as a sawlog.
Sources
(7 references)
- Black Walnut: USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America, with the chapters on black cherry, white oak, northern red oak, cherrybark oak, sugar maple, yellow-poplar, eastern white pine, loblolly, shortleaf, longleaf and slash pines, baldcypress, black locust and eastern redcedar: the quotation on white oak, each wood’s uses and the ground each does best on, walnut’s 16-inch sawlogs in 30 to 35 years and 20-inch veneer logs in 40 to 50, white oak’s rotation past 120 years, cherrybark oak’s 3 to 6 inches a decade, post-size black locust in 15 to 20 years, red cedar’s posts and sawtimber, baldcypress heartwood at about 200 years and the second growth that lacks it, loblolly’s place in the South and tuliptree’s self-pruned trunk.
- Silvicultural Systems for the Major Forest Types of the United States: USDA Forest Service, Agriculture Handbook 445 (R.M. Burns, technical compiler, 1983): black cherry financially mature at 80 to 90 years and sugar maple at 120 to 160, cove hardwoods of 20 to 24 inches in 70 to 100 years, eastern white pine on a 40-year rotation in the southern Appalachians, longleaf at 60 to 80 years for sawtimber, shortleaf seldom grown past 70, slash pine’s 16-inch trees in 45 to 55 years, and loblolly stands that on many sites double or triple the wood of the trees around them.
- Silviculture Handbook, Chapter 45: Black Walnut Type (PDF): Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (1990): the 10-by-10-foot grid thinned from 436 to 23 trees an acre, weed control for three to five years, lateral pruning from 10 feet to a 17-foot clear trunk on about 100 trees an acre, branches taken before 2 inches thick in the dormant season and never more than a quarter of the live crown a year, veneer buyers’ own systems and competitive bidding, and cutting slow trees at 12 to 14 inches.
- Cut or Wait: Decision-Making for Landowners: Mississippi State University Extension Service, Publication 3593 (S.M. Tanger, B. da Silva and M.E. McDill, 2024): the quotation, the loblolly plantation model at 606 trees an acre with its harvest ages, thinnings and sawtimber tons, and its stumpage prices from the two years before.
- Recycling Municipal Trees: A Guide for Marketing Sawlogs from Street Tree Removals in Municipalities (PDF): USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area, and the New Jersey Forest Service (E.T. Cesa and E.A. Lempicki, revised 2003): the species and sizes of the best street-tree sawlogs, metal in the lowest 4 to 6 feet, the damage it does to saw blades, and logs too full of metal to sell.
- Planting Hardwood Seedlings in the Central Hardwood Region (PDF): USDA Forest Service and Purdue University (P.M. Pijut, FNR-210, 2003): weed control for the first three to four seasons over a circle 3 to 4 feet across, and mowing that leaves the roots of the competing grass.
- Forest Growth and Yield: Mississippi State University Extension Service, Publication 3887 (C.L. VanderSchaaf, 2026): chip-n-saw as a loblolly product class beside pulpwood, and what a thinning does for the trees left standing.
