It could be expensive to build roads into more remote areas of forest and there would be some areas where it wasn't economic to harvest, he said.
Dr Payn said there would certainly be a peak in trees maturing but they didn't have to be harvested in any one year.
People in a region could work co-operatively to smooth out the wood flow.
Internationally, it was common for small growers to co-operate and it was expected to become more common in New Zealand.
Dr Payn said a lot of the plantings in the 1990s had been first time investment forests. If people had a good return they would replant, if not they might change their land use.
"If you've got a forest that's close to a mill you're going to get a better return, so I mean some of our more remote forests ... people may think it's easier to go into sheep and beef or something like that."
If they put the effort into putting roads in, infrastructure and returns would be better the next time around.
He added that some forests would have been established with a replant requirement.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council Eastern catchments manager Simon Stokes said the regional council worked with landowners and forest managers to help them understand the productive capability of their land and choose the most economically and environmentally sustainable land-use options.
"For example, some land is more suited to forestry or cropping, while other land can support intensive farming," said Mr Stokes.
"Factors like soil type, topography, water availability and accessibility can all affect the productive capability of a land parcel."
Two schemes in Rotorua, the Gorse Conversion Project and a Lake Rotorua incentives programme, incentivised change to environmentally sustainable land-use options.
"Forestry is just one of the potential options a Rotorua landowner could gain funding for via either scheme, and is a particularly viable option due to the good infrastructure already in place to support forestry in Rotorua," said Mr Stokes.
Chris Goulding, who edits the New Zealand Journal of Forestry and previously worked for Scion, said about a third of the harvest coming up in New Zealand was from small-woodlot owners.