New York’s forest ecosystem provides a wide range of opportunities and services. The forest resource in New York supports an important economic base for the State in the form of employment, recreation, tourism, and a broad-based forest products industry, and provides wildlife habitat, biological diversity, scenic landscapes, and recreation opportunities. Of course the forest resource also helps provide clean water and clean air. While these environmental qualities are important to landowners in New York, the purpose of this bulletin is to provide landowners with an introduction to the factors that affect timber prices, as well as an understanding of recent trends in timber prices and the implication of these trends on timber management.