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Timberland owners & managers

The Westervelt Company

Privately held

Westervelt is a private, family-held Alabama company founded by Herbert Westervelt in 1884 and still headquartered in Tuscaloosa. It manages more than half a million acres of forest and runs several distinct businesses off that base: forest resources, lumber manufacturing, ecological services, real estate, and timberland in New Zealand.

Ownership
Privately held
Headquarters
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Founded
1884
Timberland
More than half a million acres of forest under management
www.westervelt.com (opens in a new tab)

Does it buy timber from private landowners?

Yes - this company buys wood from outside its own ownership.

Westervelt runs sawmills in west Alabama, and a mill of that size cannot be fed from company ground alone. Its forest resources arm works with private landowners as well as its own land. Confirm current specifications and whether it is buying with the company directly.

This is a company-level answer taken from what the company itself publishes. Every mill sets its own specifications, haul radius and gate price, and any of them can stop buying without notice. Confirm with the mill before you put a crew on the ground — and for a real number on a real tract, let buyers bid against each other.

What it makes and sells

  • Southern yellow pine lumber
  • Timberland management
  • Ecological and mitigation services
  • Real estate

In the U.S. South

An Alabama company with Alabama ground and Alabama mills - one of the few of that size still privately held.

Find the mills in your county in the state agency directories.

Worth knowing

  • One of the oldest continuously operating forest products companies in the state: it has managed forest resources for roughly 140 years.

Where these facts came from

Checked against these documents on 14 August 2026. AXE USA has no relationship with Westervelt: nobody paid to be listed, this profile is not a recommendation, and nothing here is investment advice. If a fact disagrees with the company itself, the company is right.

Others in timberland owners & managers

Companies whose asset is the ground itself. They grow and sell timber, and some buy land rather than logs - which makes them a buyer for the tract, not the harvest.

All companies

  • Acadian Timber

    Not stated publicly

    Publicly traded· TSX: ADN.TO

    Acadian Timber owns and manages freehold timberland in New Brunswick and northern Maine and provides management services on Crown land. It is the smallest of the listed timberland owners on this site and the only pure read on the Northeastern market rather than the U.S. South.

    HQ
    Edmundston, New Brunswick
    Land
    Freehold timberland in New Brunswick and Maine, plus timber services on Crown licences
    Softwood and hardwood sawlogsPulpwoodTimberland management services

    1 sourceRead the profile

  • Rayonier

    Not a timber buyer

    Publicly traded· NYSE: RYN

    Rayonier is a timberland real estate investment trust whose income comes from three segments: Southern Timber, Pacific Northwest Timber, and Real Estate. It owns no pulp mills or sawmills - it grows timber, sells it standing or as delivered logs, and sells land that is worth more for something other than growing trees. Its acreage is weighted heavily toward the U.S. South.

    HQ
    Wildlight, Florida
    Land
    About 2.0 million acres owned or leased at 31 December 2025 - 1.69 million in the U.S. South and 307,000 in the Pacific Northwest
    Standing timber and delivered logsHigher-and-better-use land salesRural land and development property

    1 sourceRead the profile

  • RMS

    Not a timber buyer

    Privately held

    RMS is a timberland investment manager headquartered in Birmingham. It does not manufacture anything: it buys, manages and sells forestland on behalf of pension funds, endowments and other institutional investors, and has been a registered investment adviser with the SEC since 2004. A great deal of the timberland in the Southern states is held this way - through an investment manager rather than by a mill company.

    HQ
    Birmingham, Alabama
    Land
    About 2.3 million acres of privately owned forest under management globally, valued at $5.8 billion
    Timberland investment managementForest management for institutional owners

    1 sourceRead the profile

  • Weyerhaeuser

    Not stated publicly

    Publicly traded· NYSE: WY

    Weyerhaeuser is one of the world's largest private owners of timberland and the largest in the United States. It grows and harvests timber on its own ground, sells logs to its own mills and to outside buyers, and runs a Wood Products business making lumber, oriented strand board, engineered wood products and structural panels. It is structured as a real estate investment trust.

    HQ
    Seattle, Washington
    Land
    More than 10 million acres owned or controlled in the U.S.; long-term licences over more than 14 million acres in Canada
    Sawlogs and pulpwoodStanding timber (stumpage sales)LumberOriented strand board+2 more

    1 sourceRead the profile