This post includes data from Forisk’s 2024 North American Timberland Owner & Manager List and the Q2 2024 Forisk Research Quarterly.
Forisk has been tracking timberland transactions and aggregating timberland owner data since 2005. The 2024 edition of the North American Timberland Owner & Manager List includes 320 organizations that own or manage at least 10,000 acres. Since the 2023 edition, 14 organizations were added and two fell off, representing a 5% change in owners and an additional 2 million acres. Over that time period, Forisk tracked timberland transactions involving those organizations totaling nearly 1 million acres.
Timberland Owners
The table below lists the 2024 top 10 timberland owners in the U.S. and Canada. Each organization has a minimum ownership of 1 million acres. Weyerhaeuser continues to top the list with nearly 10.5 million acres. Only one new name appears on the 2024 list, Aurora Sustainable Lands1 (formerly Anew), coming in at number 7 with 1.6 million acres after acquiring the lands formerly managed by The Forestland Group as well as other acquisitions. Looking back five years, the 2019 edition of the Top Ten Timberland Owners included eight of the ten owners on this year’s list.
Timberland Managers
Of 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, hold six slots, accounting for 14.7 million acres. This comprises 55% of the 24.5 million acres managed by the top 10 firms (versus 25.2 million in 2023). Forestry consulting and management firms round out the list, with American Forest Management once again holding down the top spot. As with the top ten owners, this year’s list includes nine of the ten organizations that appeared on last year’s list and eight of ten from the 2019 edition.
1Aurora Sustainable Lands appeared on the 2023 top ten managers list as a TIMO. Aurora’s management team has since clarified their structure and has been recategorized as a Private organization, moving them into the “owner” category.
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