How many trees Should I plant?

The answer is: it depends. Most timber companies will plant Douglas fir at 10’ by 10’ spacing resulting in 435 trees per acre. On our Mason Lake Tree Farm, we planted Red Cedar at 8’ by 8’ spacing resulting in 680 trees per acre. In 2023, we will be planting Noble fir at 5’ by 6’ spacing resulting in 1452 trees per acre. Your goals with your property will determine what you will plant and how many trees will be planted.

If you are having the trees on your property harvested, you should ask your logger to plant the harvested area at 10’ by 10’ spacing with Douglas fir seedlings. Make sure your property is planted early in January-February. Most loggers will try and plant the minimum required number of seedlings, which is approximately 200 trees per acre.

I like to plant more trees than I need. In an average year, you should expect to lose 10% of your seedlings to mortality. On a bad year you could lose 50%. Last year on our Mason Lake tree farm we lost approximately 40% of our seedlings due to the extreme heat.

Also keep in mind, the more trees you plant, the higher your planting cost will be. Expect to pay between $0.90 and $1.00 per seedling to properly reforest a cleared area with a reputable tree planting crew. I recommend negotiating an hourly rate with the trees planters and not a per tree rate. The quality of the work of the planting crew should be higher with a per hour rate.