1. Educate yourself on the standing timber insurance program and review the chart below to see if this program is right for you.
2. Know the location of your timberland
3. Gather your latest cruise data. How often is a cruise necessary? It depends, and Wilson says he is flexible on this. What he will need is value, which can be determined after the fact. However, the insured is better protected if they have an accurate valuation. If there is say $100,000 of timber value and the insured only places $50,000 of value on the timber than a co-insurance clause would be applied to loss. If loss is $25,000, insured value is $50,000, and actual value $100,000 then paid loss would be $50,000/$100,000 * Loss or $12,500.
4. Fill out the standing timber insurance application with a copy of your timber management plan
5. Timber valuation
   1. Are your trees merchantable or non-merchantable?

                                     i. Merchantable, or those trees that are big enough and good enough to attract a buyer – basis of loss valuation will be the market value of those trees possible to sell at the time of loss. You and/or your timber manager will determine the value to be placed on the trees. The timber to be covered in this program must be under a written timber management plan as recommended by a forest product company, a consultant forester, or state forestry agency.

                                    ii. Non-merchantable, or trees not currently suitable for commercial harvesting, and not required for regeneration or habitat purposes -  value is based upon the costs of land preparation, tree planting and tree seedling maintenance.