11 Ways to Get Paid to Plant Trees on Your Land

Is it possible to get paid to plant trees on your land? Absolutely yes! Do you want to learn how? Read on to see just how.

Generally, the benefits of planting trees are countless. For instance, planting trees reduces carbon dioxide and adds oxygen to the atmosphere. In addition, trees are a source of food and shelter for many species. But did you know you can also make extra cash planting trees on your land? Indeed you can!

Tree farming can be a lucrative venture regardless of the size of your farm. For example, trees and tree products such as nuts, fruits, and wood are highly valuable. But most people are unaware of the numerous ways to make money with trees.

However, you have to exercise a lot of patience for your tree planting job to be successful and bring you financial returns. This is because trees take a long time to grow and might not give you income as fast as you want.

So, do you want to learn how to make money planting trees? Check out these incredible tips on how to get paid to plant trees on your land.

Best Ways to Get Paid to Plant Trees on Your Land

If you wish to monetize tree planting on your farm, here is how to do it.

1. Producing Saplings of Trees in Your Nursery

This is the fastest way to earn extra cash, planting trees on your land. And a tree nursery does not require a lot of space. You can create one in your garden or your small patch of land.

In a tree nursery, your work will be to grow, propagate, and sell tree saplings. When setting up a nursery, you can choose to produce tree saplings from seedlings, seeds, or cuttings. Choose one that will save you cost and that you are most comfortable with.

You will get paid to plant trees on your land if you sell these tree saplings to landowners, homesteaders, organizations, and even government departments. Aspire to produce enough saplings that will match up to the existing demand.

The advantage of raising tree saplings is that you can sell them at different stages. And while young trees will retail at a lower price, customers who want mature tree saplings will fork out more money.

Therefore, raising saplings in a tree nursery is one of the flexible and unique ways to make money planting trees on your land.

2. Growing Trees for their Nuts and Fruits

Growing fruit trees and trees that produce nuts is among the best ways to get paid to plant trees on your land. Usually, fruits and nuts are high-value products with a ready market. This way, they offer an almost guaranteed return on investment.  

You can set aside a portion of your land as an orchard. This will be specifically for growing fruit trees such as apples, pineapples, oranges, and avocadoes.

However, before starting a commercial fruit and nut trees business, please ensure the climate is conducive for the type and variety of trees you want to plant. Also, ensure you have enough demand for your fruits and nuts in your local market. Lastly, note that there are some important agronomic practices of planting these trees that need to be adhered to.

You can earn extra cash from nuts and fruits harvested from your trees through direct selling to your neighbors or neighboring local communities and markets. You can also process these products into other higher-value products, such as juices, for higher margins.

3. Planting Trees for Timber

Trees are a good source of timber. And without a doubt, planting trees for timber is an excellent way of making money from your land. The different varieties of trees on your land can be harvested and sawed into commercial timber.

However, if you choose to plant trees for timber production, then patience is paramount. Remember, trees will take several years before maturing into good timber.

But when mature, there is a high global demand for timber as it’s the main material used in furniture-making. Also, wood is used heavily for industrial purposes, especially in the paper manufacturing industry.

Timber is also widely used in construction and craft projects such as wood carving. This means that there is a huge market for wood and timber that you can get a slice of and make money in the long run.

So, get paid to plant trees on your land by sawing the trees and directly selling timber. And if you are a DIY enthusiast, you can also make craft products and sell them.

4. Plant Trees for Fiber

Fiber is also an important product from trees that you can make money from. All you need to do is find trees that are good sources of fiber and plant them on your land.

Cotton is one of the trees you can grow on your land, which is a good source of fiber. Cotton is widely used in the textile industry as it’s cheap, and its fiber has unique properties.

You can plant cotton trees on your land and supply its fiber to a nearby ginnery. This is among the easiest ways to get paid to plant trees on your land. So, if you have a large tract of land, consider dedicating it to cotton farming.

Generally, cotton can earn you some quite handsome returns. Furthermore, harvests for fiber will continue for a long time before you can replace the trees. Kindly note that the upfront costs for planting fiber trees may be higher. But your earnings will be worth it in the long run.

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5. Planting Trees for Firewood

It is pretty easy to learn how to make money by planting trees on your land. For instance, growing trees purely to produce high-quality firewood clearly indicates that.

Firewood can be used at home for heating and cooking, saving you the money you would spend on gas and electricity. Also, you can harvest your trees, cut them into firewood, and sell that firewood to other users in your area to earn extra cash.

Make sure you plant hardwoods if your focus is to produce firewood. Hardwoods produce dense wood and excellent firewood. And you can ensure your project’s sustainability by replanting trees on your land whenever you harvest the mature ones for firewood.

Firewood is also widely used in several industries. For example, it is used for fueling steam turbines and steam engines. Also, if you want to know how to make extra money from your trees, selling them as firewood to companies in thermal electricity generation is a great option.

6. Growing Ornamental Trees

These types of trees are used to beautify your home and add color. Usually, their beauty puts them in high demand, making them one of the best ways to get paid to plant trees on your land.

When you choose this route, you should focus on planting shrubs and trees that are not only beautiful but also good sources of shade. The major landscaping trees here include star magnolia, Japanese maple, desert willow, crabapple, sugar maple, blue spruce, and arborvitae.

You can earn extra cash from these trees by selling them directly to customers such as your neighbors. Also, there are numerous landscaping companies that you can supply to. Various gardens, hotels, and conference facilities are also in great need of ornamental trees.

Make sure you have a high volume of landscaping trees to meet the demand if you want to succeed in this venture. This is critical to ensure a steady supply for landscaping companies, which can automatically become your key repeat customers. 

Even though planting landscaping trees is a time-consuming venture, the financial returns are worth it. You only need to be a little bit patient.

7. Using Your Forest or Woodland for Training or Educational Purposes

Now, this is another unique way to get paid to plant trees on your land. If you have a large tract of land, you can consider planting a forest. But, even if your land is small, you still stand to gain from such a venture by using the land creatively.

Turn your forest or woodland into a training ground for individuals and groups. Running courses or workshops on forestry, coppicing, and forest gardening is one of the ways to make money planting trees on your land.

For example, if you have a well-developed orchard, you can use it to teach people about orchard maintenance. This can significantly boost your revenue streams from your land.

You can curate the workshops and courses by yourself or involve an expert. Also, you can choose to offer the courses and training part-time or full-time, depending on your schedule and other commitments.

8. Using Trees for Recreation

With inventiveness and creativity, it is possible to create tree-based attractions that can help you get paid to plant trees on your land. Therefore, if you have a relatively large parcel of land, there are many recreational businesses that you can start.

One of the easiest ventures to establish is an adventure playground that targets children. This may include something like a treehouse that is usually a great attraction for children.

If you have big trees on your property, you can also consider creating a zip line or high ropes. Aerial recreation is something that is continually growing in popularity.

These tree-based recreational activities will be attractive to kids and any other person interested in outdoor activities. And you can choose to charge a small fee and earn extra cash from your trees.

Furthermore, the tree-based attractions you create using the trees growing on your property can help you diversify into the eco-tourism or travel industry. This can be done in combination with the landscaping functions of the trees you have planted.

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9. Using Tree to Host Events

There are more than enough ways to get paid to plant trees on your land. For instance, if you have enough land, you can consider planting a woodlot or mini-forest and using it to host events. However, this requires patience for your trees to mature and form an ambient space for hosting events.

The events you can host in your beautiful forest can include weddings, business outings, birthdays, Halloween parties, and business seminars. However, ensure that your woodland space is conducive and attractive to potential users. You can achieve this by planting more ornamental and landscaping trees to create a beautiful forest that people can consider booking for events.

To reach potential customers, you can take photographs of the spaces and share them on social media or your website. If you do marketing well, this is undoubtedly one of the best ways to make money with trees.

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10. Growing Trees for Resins, Tannins, and Oils

By now, you must have realized there are many ways to make money planting trees on your land. And growing trees that are good sources of resins, oils, and tannins is another one.

Resins, oils, and tannins are highly valuable substances used in the industry to make varnishes, incense, and adhesives. So the market for such trees is practically insatiable.

Grow trees that are good sources of these substances and smile all the way to the bank as you get paid to plant trees on your land. Some of these valuable trees include the Lansan trees, agarwood trees, and Dipterocarpaceae.

However, some of these trees are facing extinction threats. But you can also exploit that opportunity by planting them to promote their conservation.

11. Plant Trees on Forest Service Contracts

These contracts are another excellent way of making money planting trees, especially for local people living near forests. It’s a great venture that helps to improve the environment, as well as earn some bucks for many people.

The best thing here is that there are contracts worth millions of dollars each year. For example, a single tree planting contract for North Minnesota’s planting season fetches even up to $1,000 for a homesteader. That’s quite attractive, and there is certainly no reason why you shouldn’t earn this money.

All you need to do is to bid and win these contracts, plant trees, and get your money. Besides the money, you will be helping in restoring the country’s forest cover, which is largely affected by logging and forest fires. In fact, this planet needs more trees to effectively deal with global warming and hunger issues affecting the globe.

Note: While you might not be planting trees on your land here, you will have played a significant role in making this world better. And ultimately, you will make some good money out of it.

Most Profitable Trees to Grow for Money

If you are considering starting a tree-planting business on your land, here are some great tree species to consider.

1. Arborvitae Trees

These are beautiful evergreens that are quite popular for their landscapers. Usually, they are planted in rows, forming a stunning green wall that most people can’t resist. Also, they are easy to trim, and you can shape them the way you like.

For these reasons, Arborvitae trees are in high demand as individual homeowners, landscapers, and organizations look for them. As such, if you have a good number of these on your farm, you can be sure to make good money from them.

2. Christmas Trees

Christmas is one of those festive seasons during which everyone goes out of their way to make their homes pretty. Organizations are also not left behind as they buy ornamental products to mark the festivals.

Christmas trees are one product that makes this festive season feel so real and beautiful. Therefore, growing and selling these trees can make you a lot of money. All you need is to ensure that they are mature when Christmas comes.

If you are a beginner in tree planting, there are several species of Christmas trees you can grow on your farm. These include Scotch Pine, Fraser Fir, Doulas Fir, and Balsam Fir. Conduct your own research to know which variety is best for your climate.

3. Nut Trees

These are incredibly lucrative types of trees to grow on your farm. Depending on the variety, nut trees can fetch you a substantial amount of money, whether you sell their nuts or wood.

A good example of a nut tree is the walnut tree. This type of tree will grow wide, if allowed, enabling high growth of delicious nuts that you can sell for good money. They grow first, and within around four years, you will be ready to start harvesting your nuts.

Walnut trees can also grow tall, providing an excellent source of wood and timber. However, the taller the tree grows, the fewer nuts it produces. Therefore, decide what you want to focus on (nuts or wood), depending on the market.

Other nut trees to grow include almonds, chestnut, macadamia, pinenut, and pistachio. The list is long.

4. Japanese Maples

These trees are mainly grown for their beauty, with interested customers always ready to pay top dollar for the trees. They are usually medium-sized trees with brightly colored leaves that take the bonsai shape.

Japanese Maples come in different varieties, some with bright yellow leaves and others with red, purple, or orange colored leaves. These trees can be an excellent option if you have a sizeable piece of land you want to monetize by growing trees. For example, a young tree can get you around $50 to $100, with the price increasing as the tree grows older.

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