Abstract

According to the literature, forwarding productivity depends chiefly on log concentration, the number of assortments, mean log volume, load-size, slope, and extraction distance. However, there is not much scientific knowledge available on forwarding in continuous cover forestry (CCF) in boreal forests, nor whether the presence of remaining trees actually affects forwarding productivity. Thus, the objective of our study was to isolate the effect of remaining trees (i.e. stand density) on forwarding productivity during CCF, specifically selection cutting. The results showed that productivity was explained mainly by the log concentration, while other factors had at most minor effects. Most importantly, stand density did not significantly affect forwarding productivity, ceteris paribus. Thus, we conclude that remaining trees do not affect forwarding productivity in boreal forests. Although the study results from this CCF operation must only be cautiously applied to even-aged forestry, our results raise a general question: do we need separate productivity models for thinning and clearcut operations in boreal forests if remaining trees (stand density) do not affect forwarding productivity? Because of the small dataset, we consider our paper to be a pilot study whose findings need to be verified by studies based on larger datasets including several operators and stands.

Keywords

cut-to-length logging; time study; forest operation; partial cutting; single-tree selection; extraction

Published in

Journal of Forest Science
2023, Volume: 69, number: 7, pages: 317-323

SLU Authors

• Ersson, Back Tomas

  • School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17221/44/2023-JFS

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/123110