Logging company buys over half a million acres of Upper Peninsula timberland

MARQUETTE, Mich. - A New Hampshire-based logging company has purchased more than a half-million acres of timberland in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Seattle-based Weyerhaeuser Company says it recently sold 555,000 acres of UP timberland to an affiliate of The Lyme Timber Company for $300 million in cash.

Company officials said in a news release that those woodlands will be managed for “sustainable timber production” by Lyme Great Lakes Forest Company.

Lyme is expected to keep the former Weyerhaeuser employees who have managed the land, which sustains a mix of hardwood and softwood acres.

Lyme Timber CEO Jim Hourdequin says the Hanover, New Hampshire-based company is “excited to be investing in a region known for the quality of its hardwood timberland, mill capacity, and logging and trucking infrastructure.”