High Grading removes the dominant trees in a stand. These trees are usually the biggest and most highly valued. This practice is discouraged in all but very unusual circumstances. While profit is maximized during such a cutting, it is only at the detriment of profits in the future (even greater then was realized at the time of high-grading) and continued forest health.

Energy for growth is transferred to poorer quality trees in the understory. In the long run, the forest will be healthier and give more, higher valued products if it is not high graded. Unfortunately, many forest landowners, especially those not familiar with forestry practices, are often enticed by short term profits to allow high grading on their land. Problems associated with diameter limit cutting include removing high value trees, concentrating energy on the growth of low-value trees, no control over stand density and spacing, and decreased future yields.

All the trees larger than 15 inches in diameter were removed from this block(figure 1). Like the last treatment, this is a diameter based cut that reduced stocking to 60%. Because this is an even-aged stand, the largest trees were not older, but simply competed better for site resources. We removed these larger stems leaving slower growing, damaged, and lower timber value trees. Does this stand look good?

There is now a higher proportion of shade tolerant species. Wildlife was not a consideration; many food sources and potential den trees were removed. Even though the immediate financial return is high, the potential future income is limited. This treatment, (figure 1) also known as high-grading, is not an example of sound forestry, but unfortuneatly is a common practice in Pennsylvania today.