Gathering wood can be a tedious process. Lets cover a few things to speed the process up (and collect some other goodies as well).

1) Use the Map! Seriously, don't just use the map to find the forests. Once you buy a forest the map will provide you with a lot of useful information. Tree counts being the chief among them. If you want to optimize your time, gather wood from dense forests with lots of trees in a small area. Also pay attention to the type of trees. If you buy a forest with almost nothing but pine, you aren't going to get a lot of money for the forest. But if you find one with a lot of oak and birch, now you are in the money.

2) Get the lay of the land. Is your forest relatively flat, or are there crags and gullies that are going to slow down, or even trap your heavy equipment? Is it hillside or level plains? All of these little things are going to help you determine the best course of action for gathering your wood. Remember, while your machines are faster at gathering and moving wood in general, sometimes it is better to hand cut trees, or carry logs to a better collection spot than to try and force your machines to drive into otherwise inaccessible areas. Another major consideration is where is the nearest drop point for your logs? Speaking of which...

3) Log Drop Points. With recent updates the number of places you can safely drop logs has been vastly expanded. While it is always best to use the designated drop points, sometimes they are just too far away to be reasonable. So where do you drop logs then? At fords, bridges, or any place you can reach the deeper water with your machine without drowning it. A couple of places I even used the machine to create a pile of logs and then hand carried/dropped them of the side of a dock. Find the currents that move your logs, and then find every accessible place you can drop your logs safely and easily. Figure out what is close enough, and accessible enough, to be usable. This takes a little planning on your part, but will pay off with speed in the end.

4) Clear the land completely. I typically start off by running around the forest and removing all the bushes. Not only does it make it easier for your vehicles to move around in the forest, it vastly improves visibility. The next thing I do is mow the ENTIRE forest. Every last patch of grass and low bush. This helps you to find any small snags (fallen branches, old stumps, etc) that can hinder your vehicles movement, and often has the added benefit of adding several hundred to several thousand (depending on the size of the forest and method used in mowing) hay to your inventory. It also allows you to see all the logs without having to use Engineers Sight to find them. Plus it makes replanting easier as well. You can also find any herbs or mushrooms growing in the area much easier too. (Tip: To make it easier on myself I start by mowing the perimeter of the area switching between the chainsaw for Engineer's Sight and the hand mower to clear. You can also press the chainsaw hotkey while on the riding mower and using Engineer's Sight to see a brief flicker of the forest perimeter.)

So everyone knows you get bark from logs processed by your plant after you fix the main mill. Here are a few helpful factoids on Bark:

Maximum Mill Storage: 20,000 Kg
Gain per Log: 70 Kg
Number of logs needed to fill storage: 286 (285.7)
Number of logs needed to fill a large (yellow) trailer: 158
Value of bark in a large trailer: 3,198 Eur (+/-5%)
Total value of bark from full mill: 5,814 Eur (+/-5%)

Wood chips are similar to bark with one major exception; once you fix the wood chip factory you can start producing chip board pallets. So is it worth it? What can you expect from wood chips?

Maximum wood chip storage in mill: 30,000 Kg
Wood Chips gained per log: 25 Kg
Number of logs needed to fill mill storage: 1,200
Number of logs needed to fill large trailer: 440
Value of wood chips from a large trailer: 3970 Eur (+/-5%)
Value of wood chips from full mill: 10,827 Eur (+/-5%)
Number of Wood Chips per pallet (chip board): 200
Value of pallet at Lumber Yard: 260 Eur
Value of pallet at General Store: Not able to sell
Value of full mill converted to pallets (lumber yard): 39,000 Eur

And now for why you are probably here: Planks. What are they worth. Is it worth drying them before selling them? What are the price differences between the different woods? Well, lets get started!

First and foremost: The selling of individual planks to Lily and then selling the pallet at the store has been patched. It isn't even worth your time to try it. Seriously, it doesn't work any more so skip even trying.

Now on with the main event:

Planks come in 4 varieties, and are either wet or dry (Humidity of 1% or higher is considered wet). Pine, Spruce, Birch and Oak. When used for building/repairing there is no real difference in anything but color(Please see the note at the bottom of this section), but when used for furniture there is a significant value difference (as well as color difference). This guide isn't going to go into furniture building as that is a whole topic unto itself. Instead we are going to quickly cover planks. EDIT: You can not longer craft furniture from wet planks, nor can you repair/upgrade buildings with them.

Plank Value (Wet) at the Lumber Yard
Pine: 126 Eur
Spruce: 144 Eur
Birch: 198 Eur
Oak: 216 Eur
(Note: This is at 100% Humidity. As planks dry out their value increases)

Plank Value (Dry) at the Lumber Yard
Pine: 210
Spruce: 240
Birch: 330
Oak: 360

At the general store all wood is treated the same regardless of type and only wet/dry is taken into account. At 100% humidity wet wood is bought for 112.49 per pallet, and dry is bought for 224.99 per pallet.

As humidity drops, the value of each pallet increases. I didn't spend the time to see if the increases were linear or mileposted (an increase in value when the humidity hits a certain percentage until the wood is all the way dry).

(NOTE: All prices are subject to change with each update. Also there is a slight variation in prices in game as well so the numbers above may not be exact.)

With the recent addition of clothing sets values can be changed. You can purchase clothing sets to improve your sell prices or work efficiency, and the differences can add up substantially.

When you start a new game you will be given the option to wear either Working Clothes or Elegant Clothes. It is almost always worth it to choose the Working Clothes and buy the elegant clothes later.

Working Clothes

Working clothes increase your productivity, allowing you to work harder and longer. But it decreases the sell price of your products by approximately 15%.

Elegant Clothes

Elegant Clothes cause you to lose stamina and hunger faster, but drastically increase the sell prices of the products you sell (crates/bales/pallets). This does NOT affect purchased items, so no going and buying a pallet of planks and then selling them for a profit. Elegant Clothes increase the sell price of your products by 40% per unit.

Uses

Wearing working clothes will help you maximize your efficiency on clearing forests. You'll be able to move/clear more with less personal cost (potions/food). After you have cleared a forest, and sent the logs to the mill, then dried them, it is definitely worth the couple extra minutes to go change into elegant clothing and then sell your products as the price increase more than makes up for any lost time.

So you've made it all the way through the story line, completed all the side quests, and are basically at a loss for what to do. So what do you do? Well, do what any lumberjack would do and start cutting and planting trees! As you gain more money you start buying forests. Start close to home, or near sites where you can quickly drop logs and start ranging out from there. Pretty quickly you'll discover that you are outpacing your lumber mills ability to dry planks. This is when I start really segregating the logs into types of planks I want (typically oak) vs types I'll keep as debarked logs and sell. You can fit a lot of debarked logs on a hauler (the largest capacity for debarked seems to be the old hauler, but trailers come in a close second), and while the profits are only about 1/3 that of dried planks, you aren't filling your mill up with waiting pallets of planks, nor having to make a dozen trips. I can fit an average of 50 debarked logs per run (or 7 trips with an extra pallet left over) making it actually more efficient as I can focus on clearing forests and not on waiting for pallets to dry. At the same time, as I clear the forest I am also mowing them and picking up all those wonderful little collectibles to make potions and meals out of. This gives me a massive excess of hay, plus additional revenue from selling meals and potions (as well as the benefits of having a few on hand to keep my energy up).

Once the forest is cleared, grind the stumps and plant new trees. What tree you may ask? Well at this time there is no significant difference in tree growth times between the types so plant the one that will get you the biggest profits. Oak. Finding a forest with more than six or seven oaks in it is rare, but making a forest of 30-40 oaks is well within your ability! How long does it take for them to grow? two to tree in game years. I know this sounds like a long time, but the game automatically skips the winter months so it won't take nearly as long as you would think. And then, you have a new forest all ready to be harvested and replanted again!

(Quick Tip: You can also plant trees decoratively around your home. So cut the trees there down and then plant as you see fit! You'll get at least 5 oaks very early in the game, and you can plant more than 100 on the plot if you want to make a literal forest to cut later!)

And that is about it. Mid to late game it is more efficient to be leaving the pines, spruce and birch as debarked logs, focusing solely on oak plank production for profits. You'll harvest more forests this way, and be able to make more furniture using oak for the highest profits.