In forestry, fishing and mining, high grading refers to the selective harvesting of goods to keep only the most valuable items.
The reduced income from timber can make it harder to fund good silvicultural practices, thereby impacting the economy of non-timber forest products and other activities such as hunting, wildlife watching or hiking.
The practice also has an ecological cost, with a direct impact in terms of biodiversity, genetic diversity and species mix.
Finally, it may cause forest to become unsafe due to an excessive amount of unmanaged trees at risk falling in a storm.
The practice of high grading allows fishers to get higher prices for their limited catch but is environmentally destructive because many of the fish returned to the water die.