This practice may be referred to as a selective harvest, or timber stand improvement. It involves removing slow growing and less valuable trees. The better trees are left in the stand with more room to grow. Thinnings may also give the woodland owner an early return on his land investment. Trees should be marketed when they reach maturity.
Maturity has two meanings.
Trees beginning to decline in value due to disease, weathering or old age are physiologically mature. The other maturity, financial maturity, occurs when the rate at which the trees are increasing in value begins to decline. Trees harvested at this point yield the maximum return on investment. Potentially, the poorest reason for selling trees is to clear land for conversion to some other use. Many people have found that productive timberland turns out to be marginal farmland.