re: Many years ago our mother's permission was sought to remove timber. Never thought much

Surely she signed a Timber Deed, which would be filed in the courthouse. Run a name search around that time and see.

If she owned the timber, then she most likely owned the property, or had recently sold it- I don’t believe that you can reserve Timber rights for more than 10 years, like oil & gas, but I’m not 100% sure.