DCHP-1 Online

stumpage

• 1a n. Lumbering a price paid for the right to cut standing timber.

  See also: timber tariff  

  • 1821  (1960)  But my cousin . . . had an excellent lot of it [standing timber]; and Jack and a few more of the youngsters agreed to pay him stumpage and make one job of the whole.
  • 1922  The land is very expensive, and the stumpage, of course, is high.

• 1b n. Lumbering a tax or royalty paid to the government on each tree taken out of a timber berth.

  See also: stumpage dues  timber dues  

  • 1854  The first step necessary for a lumberman is to secure his limits, which is done by an application for a license to cut timber on Crown lands at a certain stumpage.
  • 1963  All timber cut for commercial use in British Columbia must be "scaled" (measured for woos volume) immediately by an official or licensed scaler. From the "scale" is determined the amount of tax "stumpage" or "royalty" to be paid to the Government.
  • 1966  Then, standing trees sold at a price per tree and the practice was to count the stumps after cutting to determine the total sum owing to the government. Thus, the origin of the term "stumpage."

• 1c n. Lumbering the right to cut standing timber.

  See also: timber rights  

  • 1954  ". . . Instead've foolin' around, why don't you get stumpage on a lot of places? Put in a crew and go after pulpwood big? You could make a go of it. . . ."

• 2 n. See 1912 quote.

  • 1912  Stumpage, standing trees, as viewed by the lumberman in his trade calculations; the amount of standing timber available for cutting.
  • 1928  "I'll bet you an even thousand acres of my white-pine stumpage north of Lac Bleu that I can do it."