Tree removal on golf courses is a common part of maintaining healthy turf and good playability. However, there’s a growing movement to leave high stumps – i.e., 6 to 12 feet tall – to benefit both the environment and the maintenance team.
High stumps provide ideal perching and nesting locations for birds of prey, such as hawks and owls. Encouraging raptors to patrol your course isn’t just environmentally sound, it’s also practical. Raptors are predators of ground squirrels and other turf-damaging rodents, offering a natural control mechanism that reduces the need for traps, poisons or other interventions. Rodents can cause extensive damage to playing surfaces, bunker faces and even irrigation wires, so a little help from local raptors is much appreciated by superintendents.
High stumping also saves labor and time. Cutting a stump to grade, grinding it, backfilling the hole, and planting the area with sod or seed often requires specialized equipment and extra labor. With high stumping, staff can leave the stump intact and revisit it later if necessary. In many cases, these high stumps are left in naturalized areas where their visual impact is minimal, and their functional value is high.
This approach represents a smart intersection of sustainability and efficiency. Superintendents are finding that high stumping offers a low-cost, high-value solution that supports wildlife and eases the labor load. It’s a simple practice with wide-reaching benefits, a win-win for course management and the environment.
So, the next time a tree is ready to come down, think twice before cutting the stump all the way to the ground. Leaving a high stump might be just the invitation a raptor needs to take up residence and help out with some of your pest problems.
West Region Agronomists:
Brian Whitlark, regional director, West Region – bwhitlark@usga.org
Ross Niewola, agronomist – rniewola@usga.org