Time Consumption Analysis of Forwarder Activities in Thinning

Forwarding can be divided into separate work elements. These are affected by several factors: forwarding distance, load volume, and types of assortments harvested. For a detailed planning of thinning, productivity models should include these factors. This study analysed the time consumption of forwarder thinning operations in five pine plantations in the north-east of Argentina, determining how the log size and log concentration affect each work element. Timeand- motion studies were carried out, recording the activities with digital video cameras, and tracking the forwarder movements with global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers. Different linear mixed models were fitted to estimate the time consumption of each work element in relation to different predictive factors. When driving on the road, the forwarders had an average speed of 71.6 m min-1 empty and 75.7 m min-1 loaded. When driving in the stand, the average speed was 56.9 m min-1 empty and 52.2 m min-1 loaded. These speeds did not correlate with the forwarder size or load volume. For the loading and unloading elements, the linear mixed model explained 56% and 49% of the variability considering only the fixed effect of the logs size and the load volume. For driving while loading, the total volume loaded, and the log concentration of the assortment loaded explained 50% of the time consumption variability, with 17% being explained by random effects. The general time and productivity model developed can be applied to support accurate decisions in the process of thinning planning

Integrated supply of stemwood and residual biomass to forest-based biorefineries

The demand for forest biomass as raw material for a wide range of products in the developing bioeconomy is expected to increase. Along with a constant pressure on forestry to increase its productivity, this development has led to the search for new procurement methods and new assortments. The present study assessed innovative supply chain practices, with a particular focus on the integrated supply of stemwood and residual tree parts. The assortments considered included tree sections, long tops, saw logs with stump cores and small whole trees from thinnings. The assessment included geographically explicit modelling of the supply chain operations and estimation of supply cost and energy use for three industrial locations in Northern Sweden. The innovative supply chains were compared to conventional, separate, harvest of stemwood and logging residues. We conclude that integrated harvest of tops and branches with stemwood assortments, as well as whole-tree harvest in early thinnings, has a significant potential to reduce the supply cost for the non-stemwood assortments. Stump wood generally remains the most expensive assortment. The energy use analysis confirms earlier research showing that the energy input is relatively small compared to the energy content of the harvested feedstock

Comparison of energy-wood and pulpwood thinning systems in young birch stands

In early thinnings, a profitable alternative to pulpwood could be to harvest whole trees as energy-wood. In theoretical analyses, we compared the extractible volumes of energy-wood and pulpwood, and their respective gross values in differently aged stands of early birch thinnings at varying intensities of removal. In a parallel field experiment, we compared the productivity at harvest of either pulpwood or energy-wood, and the profitability when the costs of harvesting and forwarding were included. The theoretical analyses showed that the proportion of the total tree biomass removed as pulpwood increased with increasing thinning intensity and stem size. The biomass volume was 1.5–1.7 times larger than the pulpwood volume for a 13.9 diameter at breast height stand and 2.0–3.5 times larger for a 10.4 diameter at breast height stand. In the field experiment, the harvested volume per hectare of energy-wood was almost twice as high as the harvest of pulpwood. The harvesting productivity (trees Productive harvesting Work Time-hour−1) was 205 in the energy-wood and 120 in the pulpwood treatment. The pulpwood treatment generated a net loss, whereas the energy-wood treatment generated a net income, the average difference being €595 ha−1. We conclude that in birch-dominated early thinning stands, at current market prices, harvesting energy-wood is more profitable than harvesting pulpwood

Proceedings of the OSCAR Workshop: Mechanized and efficient silviculture : November 25–26, 2015 Natural Resources Institute Finland, Suonenjoki Research Unit, Finland

The workshop took place at Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Suonenjoki Research Unit November 25 – 26, 2015. Workshop was arranged as a joint arrangement between Luke and Latvian State Forest Research Institute "Silava" and the main sponsor was Nordic Forest Research (SNS) / Operating Systems for Centre of Advanced Research (OSCAR2, 2011-2015). This OSCAR Workshop was also promoted by IUFRO Research Group 3.02.00 Stand establishment and treatment. Altogether 28 participants from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden participated in the workshop. The objective of the workshop was to present ongoing research concerning mechanized silviculture in Nordic and Baltic countries and to discuss future research needs. State of art reports about mechanized silviculture from Sweden and Finland were presented and discussed. In the Swedish review, inverting; interface from nursery to planting machine; feeding of seedlings in planting device; identification of plantings spots and obstacles as well as planting device development without compactation were covered. In the Finnish part, mechanized planting and mechanized young stand management were discussed. Finally, the differences between the Swedish and Finnish Scots pine management cultures were discussed. The ongoing research projects concerning forest regeneration, drainage and management of young stands in Baltic countries were presented and discussed. The overview about the management of Latvia’s state forests started the session following the state of the art review of the ongoing research activities in mechanization of silviculture in Latvia. Next, the work productivity of wood ash forest fertilization was discovered. Forest regeneration and young stand management in Estonia followed. In conclusion, SeedPAD, as a new and efficient Scots pine regeneration method in Northern Sweden, was viewed. New ways of young stand management were presented and discussed. At first, the productivity of Vimek harvester and forwarder were scrutinized. Next, Fixteri FX15a small-tree bundlers work processes and productivity in early pine dominated thinnings were considered following an overview of the evolution of innovative systems for small diameter tree harvest in Sweden. In the end, biocontrol methods against hardwood sprouting using Chondrostereum purpureum were covered. In the workshop the need for further Nordic-Baltic co-operation was strongly emphasized. Cooperation in research activities as well as in dissemination of new research findings and in deployment of new innovation were widely discussed. Workshop included also a short field excursion where the PCT operation with “Tehojätkä” (Usewood Forest Master) and young stands treated with Naarva uprooter were demonstrated.201

Innovative, effective and sustainable technology and logistics for forest residual biomass

Luken kirjat, raportit, oppaat ja esitteet. Summary of the INFRES project results201

Spatially explicit assessment of roundwood and logging residues availability and costs for the EU28

Competition for woody biomass between material and energy uses is expected to further increase in the future, due to the limited availability of forest resources and increasing demand of wood for material and bioenergy. Currently, methodological approaches for modeling wood production and delivery costs from forest to industrial gates are missing. This study combines forest engineering, geographically explicit information, environmental constraints and economics in a bottom-up approach to assess cost–supply curves. The estimates are based on a multitude of wood supply systems that were assigned according to geographically explicit forestry characteristics. For each harvesting and transportation system, efficiencies were modeled according to harvesting sites and main delivery hubs. The cost–supply curves for roundwood and logging residues as estimates for current time and for the future (2030) show that there are large regional differences in the potential to increase extraction in the EU28. In most EU Member States, the costs of logging residues extraction increase exponentially already for low levels of mobilization, while extraction of roundwood can be increased to a larger extent within reasonable costs (30–40 $/m3). The large differences between countries in their harvest potential highlight the importance of spatially explicit analyses

The cost competitiveness of conifer stumps in the procurement of forest chips for fuel in Southern and Northern Finland

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Best practice guidelines on logistics and quality assurance for pellet production

http://www.forestenergy.org/observe