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Appraising Christmas Trees

Steigerwaldt offers our clients over 40 years of experience in the Christmas tree appraisal business. The valuation of Christmas trees requires an understanding of the cost, risk, cultural, and management aspects of tree production and a willingness to investigate market demand and supply dynamics. Incorrect and unsupported values can lead to significant errors, causing landowners and investors to be saddled with the repercussions for decades.

At Steigerwaldt, we emphasize using an income approach and sales comparison techniques in appraisals. Together, these techniques can generate value for trees of various sizes.

As owners and operators of Steigerwaldt Tree Farms, Ed Steigerwaldt and Lee Steigerwaldt know the value of Christmas trees and the risks, growing expenses, and operating expenses of tree farming. They work together overseeing management and sales of wholesale trees in ten states and have operated retail lots in Florida, Mississippi, and Wisconsin. They also maintain detailed records of tree production costs, as well as a comparable sales database that includes sales from the Midwest, the Northwest, and the Northeast.

Steigerwaldt has completed Christmas tree appraisals in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Oregon. Our staff of foresters and arborists allows us to mobilize quickly on inventories and complete accurate and well-supported appraisals to meet your desired timeline for completion. Clients include lending institutions, accountants, attorneys, and individual tree growers.

 

RECENT PROJECTS
Stoel Rives, LLP
We completed a large Christmas tree inventory of 600 plots as well as a consulting assignment for this project in central Oregon.

Wisconsin Department of Transportation
For a new highway right-of-way in Oneida County, Wisconsin, we appraised mature trees within the project area.

Harvest Capital Company
We appraised 3,490,000 Douglas fir, Noble fir, and Nordmann fir trees that are part of a wholesale Christmas tree operation in Marion County, Oregon.

Private Landowner
Three separate tracts of forestland and agricultural land with Christmas tree plantations were the subject of this appraisal completed in north central Wisconsin.

Private Landowner
For this project, we completed an appraisal of trees that are part of a wholesale and choose-and-cut Christmas tree operation in southern Wisconsin.