The following column is the eleventh in a series intended to benefit woodland owners.

 From the earliest days, most logging in the Ozarks has been of the type called high grading.  This involves harvesting the largest, most valuable trees.  Unfortunately, this style of logging degrades the forest, and ultimately, the landowner’s bottom line.

 High grading is typically practiced with a diameter-limit cut, in which all sound trees above a certain diameter, say 11 inches, are harvested.  The usual justification for high grading is that removing the large trees releases the small, supposedly younger trees to regenerate the forest.

 The assumption that small trees are young is wrong.  In fact, there is only a very weak relationship between tree size and age in Ozark hardwood forests.  Of pole-sized oaks, those 6 to 11 inches in diameter, the great majority is more than 50 years old and likely to die before the next harvest.

 Most pole trees are small not because they are young, but because they have been stunted by taller trees.  Even when large trees are removed, the pole trees are unable to respond with renewed growth because they have been too long suppressed.

 To the extent that the pole trees got a poor start and were overtopped or that large trees became unsound because of their heredity, high grading will degrade the quality of the stand by leaving poor parent trees.  What sensible rancher rebuilds a cattle herd by selling the best animals and breeding the worst? 

 As with any crop, the choice is whether to grow many small trees or fewer large ones.  Like a garden, thinning and weeding a forest improves its health, productivity, and quality.  It’s best to do this in a way that retains tree cover and minimizes soil disturbance to maintain the high soil and water quality normally provided by forest.

 An alternative to high grading or clear cutting is crop tree management.  As the name implies, this approach focuses on the trees that are left behind.  Large trees of poor quality, and those unlikely to survive to the next harvest in 10 to 20 years, are cut for saw timber.  Small trees with no growth potential should also be cut to favor growth on selected crop trees.

 The annual economic gain from a well managed woods is easily double that from pasture on upland soils.  Patient landowners willing to forego the immediate profit of high grading, and who improve their woods over time by worst-first harvesting will be well rewarded. Sound, large logs command a premium price because they produce higher value products, and the premium increases disproportionately with tree size.

If you own the bank, why rob it?  Live off the interest, not the principal of your woods.

Article by:  Peter Becker, The Eastern Ozarks Forestry Council