HARVESTER-FORWARDER OPERATIONS

EASTSIDE TIMBER SALE

BACKGROUND: In the winter of 1997, the Applegate District, Rogue River National Forest, was proposing a tractor yarding timber sale in the Eastside road area. The stands needing treatment were located both on Forest Service (FS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. Approximately 160 acres of land, 80 acres FS and 80 acres BLM, was looked at for this planning/sale area. This area has gentle ground with the majority of the slopes under 25 percent. While looking at the logging and transportation systems for this area we evaluated a harvester and forwarder system for use instead of a conventional tractor logging system.

The next phase was to look at the transportation system, or lack there of, within the planning area. A network analysis was set up to help select the transportation (roading) and logging system(s) for this sale. The objective was to keep the average yarding distance (AYD) under 800 feet for the forwarder. Since we had not designed a sale with this equipment we wanted to make sure that we had the area designed for both harvester-forwarder and conventional tractor system.

Out of the approximately 160 acres that reconnaissance was done on, 74 acres were chosen for harvesting. The sale was purchased by John R. Woods Trucking, Inc., Grants Pass, Oregon.

SALE INFORMATION

• Appraised harvester: Valmet 500T-single grip harvester-track mounted
• Appraised forwarder: Valmet 644-8 ton-rubber mounted
• Approved harvester: Timberjack 1270B-single grip-rubber mounted
• Approved forwarder: Timberjack 1210B-rubber mounted
• SGH* = Single Grip Harvester
• TL# = Tractor Long line
• AC= Acres
• LS = Logging System
• Volume shown in both board feet and cubic feet

FINDINGS: From the Eastside Timber Sale, Applegate Ranger District.

Pros

• Temporary roads were constructed saving dollars.
• Better utilization of the trees.
• Shorter stumps.
• Less breakage.
• Fewer landings constructed.
• The smaller trees were processed quicker. Efficiency increased.
• Shallow fuel bed depth.
• Less slash work due to harvester limbing the tops.
• Slash on harvester/forwarder roads compacted.
• Less ground disturbance and compaction due to fewer passes on skid roads compared to tractor yarding.
• The first harvester/forwarder soil compaction monitoring done on the district.
• Less falling damage to residual trees and fewer hang-ups.
• Learning about new harvesting system.

Cons

• Yarding and transportation systems planning time increased.
• Trees over 18'' in diameter were harder to process.
• Operator drove the harvester to most trees.
• After cutting the tree the operator sometimes pushed the tree away from the machine in the residual stand, and now the tree is down and parallel to the harvesting road.
• Now the harvester has to back up to get the tree perpendicular to the harvester road for processing. Usually it would be at a 45 degrees to the harvester road to process.
• The larger trees were laid on the ground to the side of the harvester and the head was processed over the log instead of the log through the head.
• Usually on the large trees, the butt log was processed beside the machine.
• When processing to the side, the slash was not used as a slash mat.
• Purchaser increased log length for 20' to 27'10''.
• With 27'10'' logs the forwarder had to haul less logs due to weight.
• More area was lightly impacted by harvester and forwarder.
• Elbow boom harvester wasn't as efficient.
• Rubber tired harvester got over slope break and sometimes couldn't back up.
• Learning process for sale administration.

Environmental Conditions

• Exceptionally wet spring.
• Road built when wet/damp.
• Some rutting occurred while operating in harvester and forwarder in we weather on the roads and in the units.
• During the temporary road was construction, the right of way trees were pushed over with the tractor instead of felled. This created more slash.

THINGS TO CONSIDER:

• Shorter logs get more scale but have less value.
• Smaller wood in the 10'' to 14'' diameter processed the best.
• Slide boom and track mounted harvester may work better, such as a Valmet 500T.
• Designate harvester/forwarder roads on the ground.

APPLICATION:

Overall this was a positive timber sale using this technology. Even though there may be more things in the CON category, they are not necessarily negative. They are mentioned to help us improve on future projects. The Timberjack harvester and forwarder did an adequate job for the sale. I think the Valmet 500T slide boom and track mounted harvester may have done a better job for the sale by having watched the Valmet operate on other timber sales. The Valmet tends to sit more and use the slide boom to reach out to grab the tree to cut and process. Additional monitoring on soils compaction will be done in the summer of 1999.

Submitted by: Rick Aubin, Logging Systems, Applegate Ranger District 3-23-99