Michigan Timber Auctions

I obtained this data from the Michigan Department of Natural Resource (MDoNR) website which is freely available and posted to an https server. This state agency is in charge of the management of state forests in Michigan. The MDoNR provides very detailed information concerning the timber, such as the various species in the lot, the volumes of each species, the percentage of saw timber and the minimum acceptable bid (the public reserve price).

• Bids: Amount of the bids placed
• Winbid: Amount of the winning bid
• Reserve: Minimum acceptable bid or the public reserve price
• Acre: Bidding lot size in acres
• Actual: Total number of bidders that submit a bid for a particular timber sale auction
• Potential: Total number of bidders that submit an actual bid for any timber sale auction held by the same office the same month
• Payment: Maximum number of payments the winner is allowed to pay off the bid
• Years: Number of harvest years the winner is allowed from the date of sale

For information on the datasets and analysis, see the corresponding github repository.
https://github.com/ericschulman/michigan_timber