What is attracting investors to timberland investments? First, biological growth of timber provides the potential for reliable asset appreciation and can lower investment risk. Unlike other asset classes, you can count on trees to grow! Second, we believe the long-term demand for timber will continue to grow. Third, timberland has a low to negative correlation with most traditional portfolio assets. The presence of timberland in a mixed-asset portfolio may simultaneously enhance total returns and reduce portfolio volatility.

Unlike stocks, bonds and other financial assets, timberland does not trade on organized exchanges, nor is its price publicly reported daily. For many years, a challenge that faced potential timberland investors was the lack of a performance benchmark for evaluating timberland performance.

Since the 1980s, we have been actively involved in the development of industry benchmarks. The National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) Timberland Index, developed in 1987, has three primary regional components: South, Pacific Northwest and Northeast. We use the South index as our market proxy for timberland investments in the southern United States.