Everyone wants Midwest walnut

Walnut and white oak logs are fetching record prices, according to Iowa loggers, wood merchants and foresters.

'Walnut for sure is at record price levels, and white oak is close if not at record levels,” said Ray Lehn, a southeast Iowa district forester for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

In fact, walnut and white oak are bringing the highest prices Bob Petrzelka, a private forester with Geode Forestry Inc. in Swedesburg, said he's seen in his 25 years in the forestry business.

'That's pretty much true,” said Ted Wieland, a buyer and seller of wood for more than 40 years.

'Everybody in the world wants walnut, and our Midwest walnut is the best in the world,” said Wieland, who operates a high-grade lumber milling and export business in Winthrop.

Walnut grown in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin has the best grain and color, said Wieland, chief executive officer of Wieland and Sons Lumber.

The soil and climate in Iowa and a few adjacent states are ideally suited for raising excellent walnut trees, Petrzelka said.

While walnut prices vary with the quality of the wood, Wieland said a typical board foot of walnut sells for $4.15, up from around $3 a year ago.

Petrzelka said he has seen 'real good” veneer quality walnut sell for as much as $12 to $14 per board foot.

'There are a lot more $1,000 trees out there now than there used to be” he said.

Wieland, who recently bought 106 walnut trees for $165,000, can attest to that.

'Size is important, but it's all about quality,” said Gary Beyer, a retired DNR forester who serves as a forestry consultant in the Charles City area.

Both Beyer and Greg Heidebrink, DNR district forester, estimate that no more than 15 percent of the walnut harvested would grade out as veneer quality.

Beyer said the most expensive tree he has sold, a walnut growing on state property near Clarksville, brought $10,000.

The most valuable walnut he's seen, with a 34-inch diameter and a 60-foot log, still is growing north of McGregor, Beyer said.

'It's big, long and straight, and there's not a thing wrong with it,” he said.

As long as it keeps growing, a tree like that will increase in value more than 10 percent a year, Beyer said.

With the high prices, Petrzelka said he and colleague Gretchen Cline have been busier than ever helping clients market their trees.

Wieland said he contracts with about 10 logging crews to harvest the trees he buys.

Competition for marketable walnut is fierce, he said.

'For every 10 piles (of logs) we bid on, we get about two,” he said. 'We never get enough walnut to meet demand.”

'A lot of the good stuff gets exported” to China, India, Japan, South Korea and Europe, Wieland said.

'We're busy, that's for sure,” said fourth-generation logger Jeremy Kubitz of Dubuque.

Unlike some outdoor occupations, logging is best done in the winter when the trees are bare, the sap has stopped flowing and the ground is frozen, said the proprietor of J. Kubitz Logging Inc., which buys and harvests trees in Iowa and nearby states and exports wood to China, Japan, Germany and other countries.

Kubitz said he prefers to buy trees from landowners who work with forestry consultants.

'If they have hired a consultant, that means they are pretty serious about selling some trees, and the consultant already has identified the ones best suited for harvest,” he said.

Petrzelka said he worries that high walnut prices will deplete the resource.

'We are cutting a lot of trees prematurely,” he said.

Beyer said he sees no danger of over-harvest.

'The people I deal with look at a tree as an investment. As long as it's growing and showing a good rate of return, they are willing to grow it,” he said.

Heidebrink said tree harvests on state land cannot exceed the replacement rate.

'For the most part we tend to under-harvest,” he said.