Productivity and Cost of Clear-Cutting and Regeneration Operations with Small and Medium-Sized Forestry Machines in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan

Nakahata, Chikara; Aruga, Kazuhiro; Saito, Masashi; Hayashi, Uichi

doi:10.1007/s11842-020-09436-7

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The operation system used in the present study is one of the common ground-based logging methods implemented in Japan [23]. In this system, felling and pre-hauling account for 10%-40% of the total cost to roadside [22,24]. The remaining cost stems from operations conducted at strip roads or landings; thus, it is not affected by tree retention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stem volume was used as a covariate because harvesting productivity is most affected by tree size [20][21][22][23]. We also used contractors as an explanatory variable because time consumptions for felling and pre-hauling are known to differ between contractors [16,24]. The two contractors (A and B in Table 2) were treated as a categorical variable, and their difference was calculated.…”

Section: Harvesting Productivity and Costmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The direct operational cost (JPY/m 3 ) for each operation was estimated using time consumption (h/m 3 ) and hourly operational expenses for labor and machinery [26,27]. Labor expenses were set to JPY 2550/h (USD 19.77/h) [24]. Machinery expenses were set to JPY 448/h (USD 3.47/h) for the chainsaw, JPY 4497/h (USD 34.86/h) for the grapple loader, JPY 10,308/h (USD 79.91/h) for the harvester, and JPY 5979/h (USD 46.35/h) for the forwarder [19].…”

Section: Harvesting Productivity and Costmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Productivity and Cost of Retention Harvesting Operation in Conifer Plantations

Tsushima

Watanabe

Akashi

2023

Forests

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Retention forestry is a harvesting system that intentionally retains important forest structures at harvest time. We examined the effect of dispersed retention on the productivity and cost of harvesting operations in a large-scale field experiment in conifer plantations in Hokkaido, Japan. For dispersed retention, we retained broad-leaved trees in three levels (10, 50, or 100 trees/ha). We used daily operator reports and investigated time consumption (h/m3) of felling and pre-hauling operations and the total cost to roadside. Compared with clearcutting, mean felling time was 7% and 17% longer, and mean pre-hauling time was 20% and 19% longer in 50 and 100 retained trees/ha, respectively. The other operations were not affected by tree retention because they were conducted at pre-existed strip roads or landings where no trees were retained. Increased time consumption caused an increased cost of felling and pre-hauling. Compared with clearcutting, the combined cost of felling and pre-hauling was 14% and 18% higher in 50 and 100 retained trees/ha, respectively. However, the total cost to roadside increased only by 3% compared with clearcutting because these two operations in total occupied 19% of the overall cost, and the cost of the other operations was not affected by tree retention. This suggests that the impact of tree retention on the total cost was small and that the harvesting system used in the present study can reduce cost increment due to tree retention unless trees are not retained on strip roads.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Harvesting Productivity and Costmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Harvesting Productivity and Costmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Productivity and Cost of Retention Harvesting Operation in Conifer Plantations

Tsushima

Watanabe

Akashi

2023

Forests

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“…The relatively high share of tractors and especially skidders can be explained by the fact that many countries are currently experiencing labor shortages, leading to greater reliance on mechanization [82]. In countries with high labor costs (e.g., Japan), fully mechanized CTL systems are commonly used [83]. The implementation of RIL could be a reason for the high proportion of the environmental dimension studied.…”

Section: How Sustainable Timber and Fuelwood Harvesting Differs By Ge...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Criteria for Assessing the Sustainability of Logging Operations—A Systematic Review

Grünberg,

Ghaffariyan,

Jourgholami

et al. 2023

Curr. For. Rep.

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Purpose of Review The comprehensive assessment of timber and fuelwood harvesting operations through the consideration of the three pillars of sustainability: Economic, social, and environmental has not received much attention. The use of criteria can significantly improve impact assessment. Therefore, the objective of this review paper is to compile and analyze the most commonly used criteria and indicators for each dimension of sustainability in logging operations over the last 6 years. This review provides an overview of these criteria for different harvesting machines, geographical areas, slope classes, time periods, types of research, and silvicultural treatments. Recent Findings The environmental pillar was the most studied (46%), followed by the economic pillar (38%). Productivity was the most investigated criterion (15%). On the one hand, productivity is linked to the environmental and social pillars, as it is related to the level of greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and the employment rate. However, productivity is mainly used as a criterion of financial interest, as it is most often studied in combination with costs. In addition to productivity, the other most frequently examined criteria were costs (10%), soil nutrients (9.5%), and soil compaction (9%). The social dimension was the least studied pillar (16%). This may be due to a lack of knowledge of social sustainability issues in this area. Summary Sustainability is achieved when all three dimensions are balanced. The results of this review show an imbalance, with economic and environmental aspects being weighted more heavily than social aspects. Balancing all three dimensions typically requires an assessment of trade-offs. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the criteria that have been studied to date and can be used as a checklist and guideline for future sustainability assessments of harvesting operations.

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Modernization of mini-tractor for wood skidding

Terinov

Toybich

Gertz

et al. 2021

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

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The work was carried out in three directions: changing the rotation system of mini-tractor, installing remote control of the winch and improving the trailer. The modernization of the mini-tractor in all directions was successfully completed, and the research results were patented. Testing of the improved mini-tractor in real working conditions confirmed our expectations. Replacing the rotary mechanism with steering, installing the driver’s seat significantly reduced operator fatigue when wood skidding. Remote control of the winch reduced the time of wood loading on the trailer by 1.7 times compared to the option without using it. The total time to perform entire technology cycle from cutting trees to loading them on the trailer, skidding and unloading is decreased by 19.4%. Changing the design of the trailer allows to exclude the turn of the tractor train along the skidroad with penetration into the forest and facilitate the loading of harvested timber.

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Productivity and Cost of Clear-Cutting and Regeneration Operations with Small and Medium-Sized Forestry Machines in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

Productivity and Cost of Retention Harvesting Operation in Conifer Plantations

Productivity and Cost of Retention Harvesting Operation in Conifer Plantations

Criteria for Assessing the Sustainability of Logging Operations—A Systematic Review

Modernization of mini-tractor for wood skidding

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