Please Advise.

[jianantonic]

Background:  my brothers and I jointly inherited a farm in central Virginia when we were all minors.  My dad has always been in charge of all the decision-making, but usually there's not much.  Our second cousins are the ones who actually live there and work the land -- our portion of the farm is just 126 acres out of a several thousand acre estate

Comments

[mlledesade]

I personally wouldn't sell it, especially if you don't need the money right now. At the very least, do some research, talk to the loggers, talk to your brothers and other family members who might have some advice.

[flamingophoenix]

My gut says it's okay; that's all I've really got. (I don't know why I think that.)

[pinkhorizons]

I'd probably sell too. I mean, like you said in reference to the PNW timber industry, it's not like strip mining the property- timber is a renewable resource. Selectively logging some areas has been in the management plan of many of the places I've worked. I'd do some basic research on the issue, but I think timber harvesting gets a bad rap from large companies clear cutting huge strands of trees, and cutting virgin old growth where threatened/endangered species live, etc... basically unsustainable vs sustainable harvesting. Since your farm has already been logged, and probably multiple times in history, it's probably fine.

Here I found this with google: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/fr/fr04200.pdf
I didn't read it, but the headings look useful. It looks like how they go about getting to the timber and removing it are important considerations.