What does the paint on trees mean?

I have been out in a few different game lands and there are hundreds of trees marked with either blue, yellow or red paint. Anyone know what the markings are for? The markings are on trees of all sizes, from saplings to the big ones, so I do not think its for logging.

It could possibly be for gas drilling on the game lands. I noticed the paint and some ribbons on the game lands in Bradford county during the early muzzleloader season. A closer inspection of the ribbons had a drilling company name on the ribbons.

From my experience I'd say some are coming down and others will be left standing. Blue/Red/Yellow are the colors I've seen. A blue "D" for den tree. Others here can tell you what the colors mean better then I can but I think Blue stays. Red goes? The forester painted yellow on a tree we cut at our cabin so I'm not real sure what the code is. Sounds to me like logging is in the future.

Muab Dib

Timber Sale Information: Paint is sprayed on trees to designate timber sale areas on state land. Trees are usually
marked at about 4 ½ feet above ground on one or more sides. The following colors of paint are used to identify the
following timber sale activities:
RED: Used to mark the outer boundary of a timber sale area.
LIGHT BLUE: Used to mark private property lines and designated riding/hiking trails
YELLOW: Used to mark payment units within a sale
ORANGE: Used to mark individual trees to be cut within a sale area.
GREEN/TURQUOISE: Used to mark “leave trees” (i.e; individual trees not to be cut) within a sale area
BLACK/GRAY: Used to mark over a different color of paint under it

Go to the PGC website and the follow the links to Timber Sales. You will be able to see if the Gamelands you were on is slated for a timber harvest and how the trees are marked for what purpose.

If it is indeed State Game Lands that you are looking at, the following paint color scheme applys:

Red - Reserve trees
Yellow - trees to be cut - slash is a saw log tree, dot is a pulp tree, X is a cull tree
Blue - Designates the harvest boundary or individual harvesting block boundary
Orange - designates the centerline of a road to be built

This is the standard color scheme for all State Game Lands Forestry operations. There are rare cases where we have exceptions.

FIRESMOKE is right, the PGC website shows all timbersales being offered for bid. Use the "About Us" dropdown, then "Agency Business Center", then "Timbersales". You can open the "prospectus" link to see the cantract standards and the map of the location.

If you have questions about a specific SGL and the location and paint, feel free to send me a PM and I'll get you the specifics about the habitat project.

Dave Gustafson
Chief Forester
PA Game Commission

I would stay away from the ones with a red bullseye.

State forest by my camp uses blue to mark the trees they do not want cut & they mark them chest high and a the base to monitor the harvester. They paint blue bands to mark cut area boundaries & also circle it w/ pink ribbin.

Red is what they marked on the trees I was able to cut at my camp, the ones they felt were a danger to my building and the power line along the road. I've seen it inside cuts for trees that have to go...maybe the low value stuff that the harvester woudln't take otherwise.

Around us, most of the log roads get re-used or they were re-purposing other access like extending the road that used to go to a fire tower they removed so I don't know how they mark roadways.

Now with all the dead wood from the gipsy moths they are cutting everywhere! Hopefully this will draw some of the deer out of the developments! Then it will be to thick to hunt!

National Forest Service is a little different in their color schemes.

Orange----Reserve trees and sale boundaries.
Blue or Green------Slash/logtree Dot/Pulpwood X---Cull
White-----Boundary for a reserve area/no entry while logging

It's kinda funny some of the pieces of timber I have cut in the ANF look like the Grafitti wall in your local city.

Many different companies will inspect the timber before purchasing and will mark the trees themselves with different color paints so as not to do the same tree twice.
Have had trees with 4-5 different colors of paint on them and just a few smiley faces and obscene gestures.

In state parks, trails are marked with blue and yellow (small squares) along the path to show the correct direction and when turns in the trails occur.