Volatile Prices and Falling Volumes Mark Lake States Timber Markets
Storm Damage Damps Lake States Log Markets in 2025.
There were opportunities to capture increased sawlog prices in the Lake States as 2025 drew to a close, but the downed wood from a Northern Michigan (Lower Peninsula) ice storm severely limited the ability to bring logs to market there after April 1.
Meanwhile, cordwood prices continued a multi-year slide throughout Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The combination of both sawlogs and pulpwood available in a mixed forest harvest limited the total value of multi-species harvests.
The strongest species prices for sawlogs for the quarter were for birch and fir, both of which advanced strongly. Pine saw log prices were down by 10% in Wisconsin, and by 20% in the North Shore region of Michigan, which suffered much storm damage. Pine saw log prices advanced robustly in Minnesota in the quarter.
But the Michigan ice storms had a devastating impact throughout much of that state for the balance of the year. All cordwood species prices were soft throughout the Lake States region in 2025.
Harvest volumes recorded by FDN were generally down across the Lake States, particularly in parts of Michigan heavily hit by the ice storm at the end of March.
Total volume harvested statewide in Michigan was reduced by 60% in the second quarter of 2026, amidst the storm's hundreds of thousands of acres with impassable roads and downed trees in the Northern Lower Peninsula of the state. As the year progressed, the drop in harvest volumes slowed, but volumes were still down by about 35% in the fourth quarter.
Michigan foresters offered caution about interpreting regional price volatility based on the presence of storm-damaged wood in that region of the state. There was limited storm damage in the Eastern U.P., and very little in Southern Michigan.
Wisconsin volumes were soft in the second quarter of the year.
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