Maine Timber Prices Q4 2025

Maine timber prices through Q4 2025 reflected a market in sharp and widening divergence. Eastern white pine sawlogs commanded historically strong prices driven by steady lumber demand, while pulpwood markets remained mired in the structural collapse that began with the Nine Dragons Old Town mill closure and accelerated through years of biomass plant shutdowns, including both ReEnergy Aroostook County facilities, which closed in 2018–2019 and were never replaced. Overlaying both was a drought that never resolved: what began as one of the driest summers in thirty years became a declared multi-year event, with 541 private wells running dry by December, 100% of the state in at least moderate drought through year-end, and aquifers still depleted enough in early March 2026 that spring flood risk is running anomalously low. For loggers, frozen low-moisture ground is workable, but the season was compressed and shoulder periods carried elevated fire risk. The wider economic backdrop remained challenging. Full-year 2025 single-family housing starts fell 7% to 943,000 units nationally, softwood mill capacity utilization held near 65–68%, and approximately 200 logging operators continue leaving the profession annually, a workforce erosion that limits harvest volumes independent of timber availability or price.

Maine Timber/Stumpage Prices: 2025 Q4

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Historical Maine Timber Price Data

Maine Softwood Sawlog Prices, 2004–2025

How to Estimate What Your Timber Is Worth

These stumpage prices give you the market rates per unit of timber in your area, but they’re not particularly useful on their own—you need to know how much wood you actually have standing on your land.

The most accurate way to determine your timber volume is to hire a professional forester to conduct a timber cruise, which involves systematically measuring sample plots across your property. This can cost $1,000 or more depending on your acreage and timber complexity.

For a quicker, DIY estimate, you can use SilviCultural—forestry mapping software designed for small woodland owners. It includes an amateur-friendly cruise system that walks you through measuring your timber and calculating volumes by species and product class.

Once you have volume estimates (in MBF, cords, tons, etc.), you can multiply them by the stumpage prices above to get a rough sense of your timber’s market value. For example:

• 50 MBF of pine sawlogs × $400/MBF = $20,000
• 100 cords of mixed hardwood pulpwood × $15/cord = $1,500

Keep in mind: Actual sale prices vary based on access, timber quality, market timing, and logger availability. These calculations give you a ballpark figure—always consult with a forester before making harvest decisions.

Market factors shaping Q4 2025 prices

White Pine: Maine’s Standout Timber Market

Eastern white pine sawlogs are the one unambiguous bright spot in Maine timber prices. The MFS 2024 report confirmed continued strength from 2023, and field reports from Two Trees Forestry and other regional operators through Q4 2025 show demand holding near those elevated levels. Statewide average stumpage runs approximately $260/MBF, but this figure obscures enormous variation.

Geography matters more for white pine than for any other Maine species. Premium clear-grade pine on accessible southern Maine sites — York, Cumberland, Knox, and Waldo counties — regularly commands $370/MBF on average, with exceptional quality logs selling at $450–$530/MBF when bid competitively. Northern Maine pine, by contrast, averages closer to $185/MBF, constrained by the spruce-fir-dominated industrial forest landscape with fewer dedicated pine sawmills and longer haul distances to markets.

The driving forces behind pine’s strength are straightforward: softwood lumber prices recovered through 2025 (October lumber futures traded near $590/MBF, up roughly 12% year-over-year), mill competition for quality logs remains active, and Maine’s Northeast regional housing market — while not robust nationally — has shown relative resilience due to persistent inventory shortages and strong in-migration. Landowners with mature, accessible pine stands are in the most favorable position in Maine’s timber market. Even with available logging contractors often booked months in advance, the economics justify the effort.

Acadian Timber reported a 4% increase in softwood sawlog pricing in its Q2 2024 update, consistent with the broader trend.

Spruce-Fir Sawlogs: Housing Headwinds Persist

Red spruce and balsam fir sawlogs tell a different story. Statewide average stumpage has declined to approximately $115/MBF — down roughly 22% from the 2022 peak — and the pressures driving that decline have not meaningfully eased.

Housing starts, which drive the majority of structural lumber demand, totaled approximately 1.36 million units for full-year 2025, with single-family starts falling 7% to 943,000 units — well short of the roughly 1.6 million needed to absorb current supply and begin addressing the national housing deficit. Softwood lumber mill capacity utilization across the Northeast runs approximately 65–68%, meaning mills are actively limiting timber purchases. That underutilization compresses stumpage prices directly and predictably.

Irving’s acquisition of the Masardis sawmill in January 2025 — a spruce-fir facility with 115 million board feet of annual capacity — added meaningful buyer pressure for that species in northern Maine, where the industrial forest is concentrated. It does not affect pine sawlog markets.

Northern Maine is the dominant spruce-fir market, home to Irving, Resolute, Acadian Timber, and Twin Rivers operations at Madawaska. These mills anchor demand. Outside that corridor, spruce-fir sawlog markets thin quickly — western Maine averages closer to $95/MBF, and southern coastal Maine, where spruce-fir is sparse and sawmill access limited, averages around $65/MBF.

The longest-term threat to Maine’s spruce-fir market is biological, not economic: a spruce budworm outbreak is building in northern Maine, fueled by ongoing infestations across Quebec. Aerial surveys in 2024 recorded 3,400 acres of visible defoliation damage in northwestern Maine, and winter population sampling found densities at or above action thresholds. Maine treated 240,000 acres aerially with insecticide in June 2025, with an additional 300,000 acres identified for potential 2026 treatment. If this outbreak progresses as the 1970s–1980s episode did, the consequences for Maine’s northern forest would be severe — millions of acres of spruce-fir mortality, wildfire fuel accumulation, and estimated economic losses exceeding $100 million. Near-term price implications are ambiguous: initial salvage could depress pulpwood markets further, while post-outbreak timber shortages would eventually push sawlog prices higher.

Softwood Pulpwood: A Market in Structural Decline

Softwood pulpwood represents Maine timber prices at their weakest. Stumpage averages approximately $2–3/ton statewide — barely enough to recover felling costs, and in many operations not worth recovering at all. Loggers routinely leave pulpwood on the ground or absorb it as an uncompensated cost of harvesting sawlog-grade material.

This is not a cyclical trough. It is a structural shift that has been building for decades and accelerated materially in the 2018–2023 period. The pulp and paper industry once operated more than 50 facilities in Maine. The state now has 6–7 operational paper mills. Average pulp and paper employment in Maine fell 72% between 2000 and 2020, compared to 51% nationally. Even from a much smaller base, the industry continues to shed capacity.

The proximate causes are well understood: the digital transition has hollowed out printing and writing paper demand; containerboard and tissue have partially filled the gap but require different fiber profiles and often less roundwood; recycled fiber increasingly substitutes for virgin wood pulp; and mill economics in the Northeast are challenged by high energy costs, aging infrastructure, and competition from lower-cost production regions.

The most significant Q4 2025 development on this front was Woodland Pulp’s announcement in November 2025 that it would pause manufacturing at its Baileyville mill — Washington County’s largest employer — from November 20 through December 17, temporarily laying off approximately 144 workers. The company attributed the shutdown to falling global pulp prices. Woodland Pulp is one of six mills in the Northeast and Quebec that paused or curtailed wood deliveries in roughly the same period, according to the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast. The mill reopened on schedule December 17 and returned to full staffing, but the episode illustrated how thin the margin is at Maine’s remaining facilities.

ND Paper in Rumford idled one of its paper machines in March 2024 due to market-related downtime, affecting approximately 100 workers, before completing a major capital rebuild of its R15 machine in May 2025. The mill continues to operate with three paper machines and has been investing in packaging paper capacity.

Regional operators describe softwood pulpwood demand simply as “way off.” For landowners planning a timber harvest, the practical implication is that pulpwood cannot be counted on as a revenue source. Harvest economics must be justified by sawlog volumes alone.

Biomass: A Decade-Old Collapse, Not a Recent One

Maine’s biomass energy wood market has been deeply distressed since 2018–2019 — well before the current market cycle. Both of ReEnergy’s Aroostook County biomass facilities have been permanently closed for years. ReEnergy Fort Fairfield, a 37-megawatt plant that had operated since 1987, shut down in November 2018 when electricity prices and renewable energy credit values fell below the threshold for viable operation. The facility was subsequently demolished and the site transferred to the Town of Fort Fairfield, which has since partially redeveloped it as a solar farm. ReEnergy Ashland followed in April 2019.

Those closures eliminated the two largest markets for logging residue — chipped limbs, treetops, and low-value wood — in northern Maine, with cascading effects on harvest economics that persist today. ReEnergy’s two remaining Maine facilities, at Livermore Falls and Stratton, continue to operate.

Economic activity from biomass fuel deliveries to Maine mills and power plants fell from $90.5 million in 2010 to $48.2 million in 2016, with further declines since. Biomass stumpage is essentially flat at $2/ton, barely covering chipping and hauling costs in most locations. The fundamental problem is electricity market economics: wholesale prices remain low, competition from wind and solar generation has intensified, and aging plant infrastructure makes capital expenditure increasingly difficult to justify.

Maine passed legislation in 2025 increasing its Renewable Portfolio Standard from 80% by 2030 to 90% by 2040 and adding a new Clean Energy Standard requiring 100% clean electricity by 2040. Biomass qualifies under these mandates. However, policy support has not been sufficient to change the underlying economics at the plant level. ReEnergy facilities at Livermore Falls and Stratton are producing biochar from biomass gasification for use in activated carbon, concrete additives, and soil amendments — a promising niche but a small market relative to traditional biomass energy use.

Hardwood Sawlogs: Divergence Within a Generally Resilient Segment

Maine’s hardwood sawlog markets have held up considerably better than softwoods through 2024–2025. As a category, hardwoods are outperforming the statewide average, though within the segment there are meaningful differences by species.

Yellow birch is Maine’s strongest hardwood performer, with statewide sawlog stumpage averaging approximately $280/MBF and continuing an upward trend that the MFS confirmed in both the 2023 and 2024 reports. Quality flooring and cabinet applications drive demand, with some export market support despite the EU’s 25% retaliatory tariff on U.S. hardwood lumber (effective July 2025). The trend is up roughly 14% against the 2022 baseline — uncommon territory in the current market.

White birch (paper birch) has shown equally consistent positive movement, with statewide sawlog stumpage averaging around $290/MBF, up approximately 25% against 2022. Strong decorative lumber and specialty export demand sustains buyer competition. White birch is expanding its range across Maine’s disturbed and regenerating forest, providing good long-term supply fundamentals. Southern and coastal Maine commands the strongest prices — $320/MBF on average — due to proximity to specialty buyers in the southern New England market.

Sugar maple is the more complicated story. Statewide average stumpage is approximately $248/MBF, down roughly 18% from the 2022 peak, with softening confirmed in the 2024 MFS report. The primary headwinds are China’s 125% retaliatory tariff on American goods (April 2025), which curtailed export demand for maple flooring-grade logs, and the overall compression in hardwood lumber markets. The western Maine premium remains intact — Oxford and Franklin county maple averages around $330/MBF on accessible stands, driven by dedicated hardwood mills and competition from New Hampshire and Vermont buyers. For landowners in that region, quality maple is still actively marketed.

Red oak trades at approximately $258/MBF statewide, down roughly 18% from 2022, and is almost entirely a southern Maine phenomenon — the species barely appears north of the Belgrade Lakes. Southern Maine red oak stumpage averages $295/MBF with active buyer competition from mills in both Maine and New Hampshire. The China tariff has hit red oak particularly hard since it was a primary hardwood export species. Two Trees Forestry Q4 field reports noted that “high-end oak settled back some” from 2022 highs, though sustained demand for large-diameter, clear material continues.

Veneer markets across all hardwood species have retreated from 2022 peaks. Sugar maple veneer averages around $510/MBF statewide, down approximately 25% from peak, with exceptional curly and bird’s-eye grades still commanding $1,000–$1,850/MBF for premium material. White birch veneer is one of the few veneer categories showing sustained positive movement, at around $660/MBF, anchored by interior design and architectural applications less exposed to export disruption.

Hardwood Pulpwood and Secondary Markets

Hardwood pulpwood has outperformed its softwood counterpart throughout this market cycle, averaging $5–$13/ton statewide. The range is wide: western and southern Maine stands with good mill access trade near the upper end, while remote northern Maine hardwood pulpwood is at or below the lower end. The primary floor support is firewood processor competition — private wood processors seeking hardwood for retail fuel markets provide an alternative demand source that softwood pulpwood lacks.

Palletwood markets have shown consistent growth, with hardwood pallet logs averaging around $118/MBF and softwood pallet logs around $112/MBF. Both categories have increased from the 2022 baseline (hardwood up roughly 12%, softwood up roughly 57% from a low base), driven by e-commerce-driven pallet demand. Pallet log markets are a practical safety valve for lower-grade material that cannot place as sawlogs or pulpwood under current market conditions.

The Drought That Didn’t Leave

The market environment for Q4 2025 has been complicated by an extraordinary weather pattern. Summer 2025 was Maine’s sixth driest on record. By early October, more than 70% of the state was classified in severe-to-extreme drought, with record-low streamflows across the region. The drought reached a point where 100% of Maine was experiencing at least moderate drought conditions by late October.

The critical distinction between a Maine drought and its operational implications is that frozen ground typically enables winter logging on wet sites that are inaccessible in wet conditions. However, the 2025 drought left soils with such a deep moisture deficit that ground freeze timing was altered, and the drought persisted through the winter. As of early March 2026, approximately 91% of Maine remains in drought conditions, with 541 private wells having run dry — more than five times the count from the comparable period during the 2022 drought.

Officials at the Maine Drought Task Force’s final 2025 meeting in December described this as a multi-year drought, not a single-season event. Deep soil moisture was not recovered before the ground froze, and frozen ground is creating a recharge barrier that will prevent recovery until spring thaw. Spring flood risk is running anomalously low — not because conditions are favorable, but because the aquifers are so depleted that snowmelt is being absorbed rather than running off. The drought is expected to remain a factor for forest operations through at least Q2 2026.

For loggers, the practical effects through Q4 2025 were twofold: dry conditions eliminated the mud-season constraints that typically limit fall and winter operations on wet sites, but elevated wildfire risk created operational restrictions in shoulder periods. The Maine Forest Service recorded more than 245 wildfires in July–August 2025, more than double the historic average for those months. Burn permits were suspended across the southern two-thirds of the state during peak risk periods.

Labor and Cost Pressures

Maine has lost approximately 40% of its logging capacity over the past five years, with roughly 200 operators leaving the profession annually. An aging workforce, the high cost of modern equipment ($500,000–$700,000 per machine, with a new operation requiring $1.5–$2 million in startup capital), and competition from construction and excavation for CDL-licensed workers and equipment operators have combined to create acute harvest capacity shortages.

The result is that harvest volume is frequently constrained by labor availability rather than timber availability or market prices. Even when pine sawlog prices are strong, landowners with harvest-ready stands routinely find contractors booked months in advance. The Kennebec Valley Community College mechanized logging program graduates approximately 100 workers over eight years, with roughly 60% remaining in the industry — a useful pipeline, but insufficient to offset the annual attrition.

Diesel costs through Q4 2025 averaged approximately $3.75/gallon, up from $3.46 in Q1 and adding fuel surcharges of roughly $0.43/mile to log hauling costs. Professional Logging Contractors of Maine reports that operators are paying 24% more for key supplies than in 2020, with equipment insurance up 17% and lubricants up 30%.

Maine’s $53.3 million federal investment in 140 miles of Eastern Maine Railway freight rail upgrades will provide some long-term relief for moving forest products to Searsport port, but provides no near-term cost reduction for the trucking-dependent harvest and haul operations that characterize Maine forestry.

What This Means for Landowners

The strategic picture for Maine woodland owners in Q4 2025 is straightforward in outline, if operationally complex in execution.

Landowners with quality white pine stands on accessible, well-drained sites are in the best timber market position Maine has offered in years. The combination of strong sawlog demand, active mill competition, and the relative insulation of the Northeast regional housing market from national weakness creates favorable conditions. The principal constraint is finding available logging capacity — competitive bidding among buyers and early engagement with contractors are both important.

Hardwood landowners in western Maine with sugar maple, yellow birch, or white birch are also reasonably positioned, particularly on sites where quality logs can be separated from pulpwood. The key is marketing: passive timber sales that accept the first offer will leave significant value on the table in a market where grade variation is extreme.

Landowners dependent primarily on softwood pulpwood or biomass revenue face very difficult economics. In those situations, harvest decisions should be driven by silvicultural objectives — improving stand quality or addressing health concerns — rather than financial return expectations from fiber products. Pulpwood is unlikely to meaningfully contribute to harvest economics in the near to medium term.

The most accurate guide to what your timber is currently worth is a licensed Maine consulting forester with current mill contacts and a competitive bid process. The prices in this report and the interactive table below are statewide and regional averages that establish a framework — what your stand actually yields depends on species composition, log quality, stand access, haul distance to the best available mill, and the logging contractor’s cost structure on your specific site.

Sources: Maine Forest Service 2024 Stumpage Price Report (Dec 23, 2025); MFS 2023 Stumpage Price Report by County; Two Trees Forestry Q4 2025 field reports; Acadian Timber Q2 2024 market commentary; Professional Logging Contractors of Maine; The Maine Monitor; Maine Emergency Management Agency Drought Task Force reports (Oct–Dec 2025); Maine Public Radio; AHMI December 2025 newsletter.