Timber harvest

Timber is standing trees on the tract, counted in acres and in board feet. You hire a logging company, they cut the acres you choose, and they pay TOUGH for the wood. The cut acres become grass.

Growth

Timber grows back from grass, one whole season at a time. A season is seven real days. The rate depends on the timber acres you left standing after the harvest:

• Under 5 acres left: 1.5 acres per season.
• From 5 acres up to 16: 2.5 acres per season.
• From 16 acres through 32: 5 acres per season.
• Above 32 acres left: 2.5 acres per season.

Growth stops when the stand is back to the timber acres the tract had when it was released. It also stops while a timber contract is still running. Grade Select Logging leaves the next cycle one band slower than the acres you kept would normally grow. Their bid does not say so.

The crews

A base crew cuts 15 acres in one real day. The base price is 0.03 TOUGH per board foot before the crew's own price and the share they keep. Five companies bid:

• Iron Span Logging. Slower, and they pay more.
• High Cut Timber. A step above the base.
• Grade Select Logging. A fast bid on paper. The next growth is slower.
• Owl Ridge Sawyers. The base pace and the base price.
• Stump & Sons. A smaller check, and they haul more of the wood themselves.

The bid you are shown is the bid for those acres. Read the days, the payout, and the growth the acres you leave behind will have. Then decide how much timber to keep. Leaving 16 to 32 acres is the fast regrowth band.