Integrated harvesting of industrial roundwood and energy wood from clearcutting of a Scots pine-dominated peatland forest

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn order to evaluate the impact of a forest management regime on timber harvesting costs, it is necessary to get information about the impact of forest treatment on the productivity of timber harvesting. Clearcutting of young or advanced thinning stage stands is not a traditional forest management practice in Finland, and thus the productivity and costs of clearcutting are considered important sources of uncertainty in the profitability calculations. In the present study, the productivity of integrated harvesting of industrial roundwood, delimbed stems and logging residues (for energy) from clearcutting of Scots pine-dominated peatland forest was studied. Video recording, continuous timing method and stem measurement information from the harvester were used for constructing time consumption models. The harvester used in the study was a Komatsu 911.5 with an attached Komatsu C93 harvester head. Trees were harvested using the single-stem cutting method since trees growing on peatland are often ill-suited to multi-stem cutting using feeding and delimbing harvester heads. The comparison of study results with earlier studies indicates that the productivity of the single-stem cutting method for Scots pine on peatlands was higher in clearcutting than in thinning, and almost the same as seen in the multi-stem cutting of downy birch on clearcuts. Due to a low removal and tree quality, the harvesting conditions are challenging and clearcutting provides the great opportunity to increase cutting productivity and the annual harvesting volume in peatland forests compared to thinning as an alternative cutting method.