Modern Logging Practices Are Far Less Damaging

With the severe fire storms that have endangered our forests once agian bringing the question of thinning our forests to the forefront in politics, I think it is important to make sure the average citizen is aware of how far logging technology has come in recent years.

One of the important components of this new method of logging is the cut-to-length system of logging, which uses highly-manouverable equipment—harvesters and forwarders—to handle the trees and logs with far less damage to the forest than is done by older logging methods.

This cut-to-length head (the business end of a harvester) grabs onto a tree, cuts it off at the base, lays it on its side and then automatically delimbs the tree, cutting it into marketable-length sections, ready for transport.

The limbs are left where they fall, to make sure there is enough material left on the ground to decompose. This carpet of limbs also minimizes soil compaction and gouging that might otherwise occur.

The cutting head can be attached to many different types of harvesters, including both caterpillar-based and rubber-tired models.

The manufacturer offers a Quicktime movie of the head in action. This will give you a good picture of how the technology works.

First, most of the logs being taken are new-growth logs of smaller diameter than was typical years ago. Logging smaller trees also enables a new breed of equipment to be used.

And no longer is it necessary to build lots of roads so that highway-going logging trucks can access the middle of the forests—instead specialized transporters called “forwarders” travel into the forest as it is thinned, picking up the lumber felled by the cut-to-length machinery. These vehicles are smaller and lighter than logging trucks, and thus do far less damage to the forest.

As you can see, these forwarders can easily manouver through forests that have been thinned properly. In fact, if you have seen the 2-hour special episode of PBS’s NOVA science show this past spring, you know that before man came along, the natural density of most forests was much lower than it is today—40 trees per acre instead of 2,000, in the case of the ponderosa pine.

This page was last modified on Saturday, 31-Dec-2005 23:26:39 PST.

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