Plant Your Walnut Trees Today for a Large Future Payout.

It is no secret that Walnut is among the most expensive species of locally-grown hardwood trees here in the Midwestern United States. The last time I checked it was selling for seven dollars per board foot--twice the price of oak.

I own a construction and remodeling company here in my hometown. One of our lesser known services is tree removal. We recently removed some standing Black Walnut trees that brought around $7,000 each by the time they were run through the mill and kiln dried. These were not huge specimen trees, with trunks in the 20-24 inch-diameter range, approximately 50 feet tall.

I have some degree of conflict with tree removal. I am a tree-lover, and I hate seeing beautiful shade trees being taken down. Nothing beats the summer heat like a towering shade tree. But if a customer calls us and requests one be removed, depending on the circumstances and species, we will remove it.

But I plant far more trees than I ever remove, and I encourage others to do the same. I give away a lot of sugar maple saplings that are constantly popping up in our yard and flower bed. We have two beautiful parent trees that turn our yard into a burst of fiery orange splendor in Fall.

My wife and I own a small, mostly-wooded acreage on which we plan to build a home in the future. There is a field about one acre in size on which I have planted a stand of 40 Black Walnut Trees. Assuming a 50 percent survival rate and 35 to 40 years of growth, I have realistic expectations of a $50,000 payout when I am in my retirement years. Otherwise I can continue to let them grow for a larger payout for my sons. Of course, like any investment, nothing is predictable.

I have mixed in some other trees such as Sugar Maples and Burr Oaks in the hopes that some towering shade trees will remain after the harvesting of the Walnut trees.

A 40-tree stand is very small. Those of you who own larger plots of land can plant stands of hundreds of Walnut trees, potentially netting hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most likely, however, those payouts would be to your children or other heirs.

I personally know two people who received payments of $19,000 and $250,000 after a walnut harvest on their property. So it is a legitimate investment opportunity. Plant now if you have the land. Your children will most likely be thankful.