This post includes data from Forisk’s 2022 North American Timberland Owner & Manager List and the Q2 2022 Forisk Research Quarterly.

Forisk marked its seventeenth year of tracking timberland transactions and aggregating timberland owner data. Currently, this tracking includes 319 private organizations in the United States and Canada that each own or manage 10,000 timberland acres or more. Over the past 12 months, this list “churned” about 6.2%, reflecting the addition or removal of 1 in 16 owners due to the divestiture or acquisition of significant timberland holdings, reaffirming the fact that timberland owners continued to review and modify their businesses and total portfolios.

The table below lists the 2022 top 10 timberland owners in the U.S. and Canada. Each organization has a minimum ownership of 1 million acres (approximately the same requirement to reach the top 10 in 2021). Once again, Weyerhaeuser takes the top position with 10.6 million acres, about the same as the next three firms combined (down slightly from 10.7 million acres last year). The Top 10 remains relatively unchanged from last year. The lone addition to the list is the State of Idaho Endowment, which moves into the list after Catchmark’s exit from the Triple T Joint Venture.

When looking separately at the top 10 timberland managers in the U.S. and Canada, TIMOs, who manage timber assets on behalf of institutional investors and large private investors, again hold six slots. These six TIMOs account for 13.6 million acres, or 52% of the 26.0 million acres managed by the top 10 firms (versus 26.1 million in 2021). Four forestry consulting and management firms, including the largest organization on this list (American Forest Management), account for the balance.