The wood tracking system for a production line generally has a wood product optimizer; a wood product trimmer downstream from the optimizer in the production line; a conveyor for moving wood products from the optimizer to the trimmer and across a handling area therebetween, the optimizer being configured to scan each of the wood products in a given order and to generate optimization data for each wood product; and a computer vision system positioned proximate the handling area along the production line, the computer vision system having a camera, a processor in communication with the optimizer and with the trimmer and a computer-readable memory for storing the optimization data, the processor being configured to acquire images of the handling area from the camera, the processor being configured to associate the optimization data of a given wood product across each of the images until it arrives at the trimmer.