Abstract
The methodology presented here can assist in making timber markets more efficient when assessing the value of harvestable timber stands and the amounts of timber assortments during the planning of harvesting operations. Information on wood quality and timber assortments is essential for wood valuation and procurement planning as varying wood dimensions and qualities may be utilized and refined in different places, including sawmills, plywood mills, pulp mills, heating plants or combined heat and power plants. We investigate here alternative approaches for generating detailed timber assortments for Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H.Karst.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and birch (Betula spp.) from airborne laser scanning (ALS) data, aerial images, harvester data and field data. For this purpose, we used 665 circular plots, and logging recovery information recorded from 249 clear-cut stands using cut-to-length harvesters. We estimated timber assortment volumes, economic values and wood paying capabilities (WPC) for each stand in different bucking scenarios, and used the resulting timber assortment estimates to assess logging recoveries. The bucking scenarios were (1) bucking-to-value using maximum sawlog and pulpwood volumes excluding quality (theoretical maximum), and (2) bucking-to-value using sawlog lengths at 30 cm intervals for Norway spruce and Scots pine and veneer logs of lengths 4.7 m, 5.0 m, 6.0 m and 6.7 m for birch, either excluding quality (the usual business practice) or including quality (a novel business practice). The results showed that our procedure can assist in locating stands that are likely to be more valuable and have the desired timber assortment distributions. We conclude that the method can estimate WPC with root mean square errors of 28.7%, 66.0% and 45.7% in Norway spruce, Scots pine and birch, respectively, for sawlogs and 19.3%, 63.7% and 29.5% for pulpwood.
Highlights
Timber assortment information and simulated future developments should all be taken into account when planning harvesting operations [1,2,3], as forest owners can use this knowledge to decide when to offer their timber for sale and from which stands it should be taken
The aims of this work were (1) to assess the accuracy of timber assortment predictions and to observe how these affect the commercial value of the final harvest, and (2) to present a method for assessing timber volume, value and wood paying capability (WPC) by timber assortments in the case of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H.Karst.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and birch (Betula spp.)
Average volume based on harvester data (m3·ha−1) Average volume based on area-based approach (ABA) data (m3 ·ha−1 )
Summary
Timber assortment information and simulated future developments should all be taken into account when planning harvesting operations [1,2,3], as forest owners can use this knowledge to decide when to offer their timber for sale and from which stands it should be taken. Depending on the requirements in terms of wood dimensions and quality, tree stems can be bucked into assortments such as grade A butt logs, sawlogs, small-diameter logs and pulpwood, in descending order of quality and monetary value. These assortments may be utilized and refined by processing plants such as sawmills, plywood mills, pulp mills, heating plants or combined heat and power plants. To optimize wood procurement planning and various end userdriven refinement processes, it is essential to know the timber assortments prior to trading and harvesting This is especially important in countries where intensive small-scale family forestry takes place, e.g., in the Nordic countries
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