Principle – Yield and Quality of Forest Goods are Sustainable

Criterion- Forest management provides for sustainability of goods and services.

Indicator – Harvesting systems and equipment are prescribed to match forest conditions in order to reduce impact.

Rewritten Indicator: - Harvesting systems and equipment are prescribed to match forest conditions in order to reduce impact on wildlife, soil productivity, residual stand conditions and water quality and quantity.

Box B: Definition:

Harvesting Systems: A system (Conway 1976) with two primary objectives:

1. Prepare trees for transportation.
2. Transport to a production facility.

System components include:

• Felling
• Bucking
• Measuring
• Limbing
• Topping
• Skidding
• Bunching
• Forwarding
• Loading
• Log Transportation
• Unloading

Harvesting Systems: Definition: The combination of methods (Matthews 1989) used to fell trees, extract logs to roadside, and haul them to market is called the harvesting system.

CIFOR’S Brief Definition:

Harvesting is an aggregation of all operations, including pre-harvest planning and post-harvest assessment, related to the felling of trees and the extraction of their stems or other usable parts from the forest for subsequent processing into industrial products.

Box D: Applicability to Different Landowners. Explain any differences:

Harvesting systems are often matched to, or influenced by management objectives, regulations and social values. This indicator does not apply to grassland ecosystems.

Box E: Overlap:

CIFOR: 3.2.2 3.2.3

Box F: Geo-Political Scale:

Notes:

Harvesting system decisions are applied to the site specific conditions based on % slope, distance from roads, sensitive resource concerns, and state Forest Practices Act regulations.

Notes:

Professional judgement applied at the site level can assess the appropriateness of the harvest system against the physical attributes of the site and overall objectives of the landowner. This is a good gauge on a site-by-site or harvest site- by- harvest site basis.

Notes: NA; Structure, function and composition are ecological parameters

Box I: Underlying Concepts:

A system comprises a group of components (Conway 1976) that are interrelated and jointly contribute to some common objective. The word system suggests plans, methods, and order.

Systems can exist when the following three primary conditions are present:

1. All the components of a system must contribute to the achievement of a common goal or objective.
2. There must be some hierarchy present within a system to assure coordination of activity and allow for specialization of system components.
3. The inputs to a system; energy, information, raw material, labor, etc. must be introduced according to some plan.

CIFOR Source underlying definition and concepts:

Extraction is the process of moving trees or logs from the cutting site to a landing or roadside where they will be processed into logs or consolidated into larger loads for transport to the processing facility or other final destination.

Several classes of extraction systems are commonly recognized, including ground-skidding systems, forwarders, cable systems, areal systems and draught animals, among others.

The following are some of the harvesting systems and equipment:

1. Most logging worldwide is done with ground skidding equipment. Such equipment includes crawler tractors (bulldozers), wheeled and tracked skidders and farm tractors.

• Skidder are preferable to crawler tractors for log extraction, because skidder are designed explicitly for log extraction. Their rubber types and high maneuverability can reduce soil and tree damage. They are usually narrower than crawler tractors and have smaller blades so that they can pass more easily between residual trees without causing damage.
• Crawlers are often used in forestry for road contraction and maintenance as well as for skidding. As a result, they have certain economic advantages compared with skidders.
• The use of farm tractors is a reasonable option when trees are relatively small and terrain is not exceptionally rugged.

Skidding operation should be suspended altogether during exceptionally wet weather; steep slopes should be avoided in ground-skidding operation; and a system of designated skid trails should be used.

1. Cable extraction system is fundamentally different from other extraction systems. In cable systems, one or more suspended cables are used to convey logs from the felling site to the landing. The cables are operated by a winching machine (yarder or hauler), which may be installed either at the landing or at the opposite end of the cableway, often on a ridgetop. An important advantage of cable systems is that they can be used under more extreme conditions, such as steep terrain on in areas with permanently wet soils, where ground skidding systems would be neither economically feasible nor environmentally acceptable.

Cable systems that can be classified as skyline or cable-crane systems have the following characteristics:

• an elevated skyline cable that is used to support the load of logs
• a carriage riding along the skyline cable that convey the load of logs to the landing and returns the empty chokers to the felling site
• some mechanism for pulling line laterally from the cableway to reach the logs to be yarded, and for laterally suspended in the air, thus reducing or eliminating soil disturbance within the cableway
• The power source does not travel along the ground as in the case of ground-skidding systems.

1. Aerial extraction systems are those that fully suspend logs in the air throughout the entire extraction process. Two types of aerial log-extraction systems are currently in use: balloon systems and helicopter systems.

• Balloon systems:

It is only feasible for clear-felling operations, although new developments currently being tested may change this in the future. Balloon logging also requires cutting units that are large enough to cover the high fixed costs associated with installing the balloon system at a landing. Where these conditions can be met, balloon systems cause very little soil disturbance and can reduce road construction substantially since they are capable of reaching very long distances from the landing.

• Helicopter systems:

Operating costs for helicopter logging are many times higher than those for other types of extraction systems. On the other hand, the great range of the helicopter, which can serve an area several kilometers in radius from the landing, makes it possible to eliminate a great deal of road construction and thereby reduce not only costs but also a major source of environmental damage. Its also causes virtually no soil disturbance and no damage to residual trees other than which occurs during the cutting operation or that is associated with the landings and transport operations.

1. Log extraction with draught animals continues to be an economically attractive choice in many areas. Animal skidding is particularly advantageous for thinning or for pulpwood harvesting, where relatively small logs are to be extracted or where products from pit sawing or other on-site processing are to be transported. These are some conditions for animal skidding:

• planning for animal skidding must allow for short extraction distance and relatively gentle slopes
• proper harnesses are essential in order to prevent injury to the animals and to avoid commutative discomfort over long working periods
• devices such as skidding pans, sledges and sulkies can greatly improve productivity in animal skidding
• in natural forest it is usually necessary to clear skidding paths for the animal
• cutting must normally be coordinated with skidding, and both should start at the back of the cutting unit and proceed towards the landing
• animals must be fed, watered and rested at regular intervals while working or they will refuse to continue
• depending upon climatic conditions, terrain and other factors, animals may not be able to work every day and they may require relatively short working days
• After the skidding operation has been completed, skidding paths should be constructed to divert water from the paths into the surrounding vegetation.

1. Other extraction systems

A wide variety of extraction systems have been developed for timber harvesting. Many of these are quite low-impact systems, if only because they are typically used on a small scale and thus their impacts are not widespread. A few of the more common ones are:

• Manual extraction. It is practical only where labor costs are low, extraction distance are short and the logs or other pieces of wood being extracted are light enough to be handled easily by humans. Most annual extraction is carried out in connection with fuelwood harvesting, certain types of thinning in plantation forests, agro-forestry operations and in forests where trees seldom attain large sizes.
• Pit sawing. It is a manual method of converting logs into sawn wood on-site. The sawn planks are then carried out manually or by animals.
• Extraction by chute. To reduce damage to residual timber and concentrate the logs at intervals along the hole road, chutes may be used to control the path followed by the logs.
• Extraction by winch truck. Logs are loaded on the truck with the winching system, and the truck is then driven to the next cutting site.
• Extraction by water. Cutting is done during the dry season or at low tide, and the logs are floated out as the water rises.

Box J: Relevance to Sustainable/Unsustainable Management:

Impacts of various harvesting systems are related to ecosystem parameters that influence long-term site productivity such as soil compaction.

The plan for a harvesting system must take into account the needs of the interfacing subsystems – manufacturing, sales, environmental concerns, regeneration etc.

CIFOR Source:

Harvesting purpose:

• To optimize extraction productivity
• To minimize impact
• To ensure the safety of extraction personnel in the vicinity of the extraction operation

Relevance to sustainable/unsustainable management:

Poor harvesting system and/or equipment can be costly, result in environmental degradation as well as excessive wood waste, poor utilization of the available resource and injury to personnel.

Box K: Measurement Methods:

Test Methods:

1. Verification that planned harvest systems were actually used.

2. Verification that the harvesting activity, including the use of proper harvest systems, has been in compliance with the State Forest Practices Act.

Measurement Methods (CIFOR Source methods):

Specific harvesting equipment to be used should be determined and a preliminary operations schedule developed using appropriate estimated production rates.

Box L: Data Required:

1. Logging methods GIS layers or tabular information on logging types used.
2. State FPA Compliance Reports. Site Inspections

Box M: Data Used for the North American Test:

Data set verification

Forest Practices Act Compliance records

Project plan documents.

Individual timber sale environemental assessments (EA’s) address impacts of different harvesting systems used in each individual alternative.

Box N: Example Results:

Box O: Assessing the Practicality:

Yes, components of this indicator can be measured and tracked over time. The FPA compliance information is recorded and tracked by the State Department of Lands on a yearly basis. Technology will influence harvesting systems available over time.

Box P: Assessing the Information Value:

This indicator will provide a gauge for managers so that they will be able to assess the suitability of harvesting systems and equipment to achieve a sustainable harvest. Managers will be able to adjust their systems and equipment to reduce negative impacts or to save money.

Box Q: Overall assessment:

Accepted -

Strengths: Laws regulate some aspects of management systems and equipment that can be used for the purpose of protecting many components of the ecosystem and to assure that reforestation takes place. All aspects are related to sustainable forestry.

A strength from CIFOR Source:

The Indicator in the pressure/state/response framework:

Provide information on harvesting system and equipment on forest harvesting pressure on the forest.

• skid-trails are the most troublesome aspect of ground-skidding operations
• required specialized skill

Development needs:

Training is essential for the operator of harvesting system

Box R: Did you rewrite or revise to a new indicator. If so what?

No

CIFOR Source.

• Forest management issues sent from Indonesia to North American Team by e-mail on June, 23^rd 1998. 58p.
• Conway, S. 1976. Logging Practices, Principles of Harvesting Systems. Freeman Publications, Inc. 416 p.
• Matthews, J.D. 1989, Sivicultural Systems, Clarendon Press - Oxford
• Idaho Department of Lands. 1996. Rules pertaining to the Idaho Forest practices Act. Title 38, chapter 13, Idaho Code. 36 p. plus Appendix A and B.

• Amirtage, I. and M. Kuswanda. 1989. Forest Management for Sustainable Production and Conservation in Indonesia. Directorate General of Forest Utilization, Ministry of Forestry, Government of Indonesia and FAO. Jakarta.
• Department of Natural resource and Environment. 1996. Code of Practice: Code a Forest Practices for Timber Production. Revision No.2. Gill Miller Press Pty. Ltd. Melbourne.
• Dyck, W.J., Cole, D.W., and N.B. Comeford. (Ed). 1994. Impacts of Forest Harvesting on Long-Term Site Productivity. Chapman & Hall. London.
• Dykstra, D. and R. Heinrich. 1996. FAO Model Code of Forest Harvesting Practice. FAO. Rome.
• Dykstra, D.P. and R. Heinrich. (Ed). 1996. Forest Codes of Practice: Contributing to Environmentally Sound Forest Operations. Proceedings of an FAO/IUFRO Meeting of Expert on Forest Practices held in Feldafing, Germany on 11-14 December 1994. FAO-IUFRO. Rome.
• FAO. 1997. Research on Environmentally Sound Forest Practice to Sustain Tropical Forests. Proceedings of the FAO/IUFRO Satellite Meeting held in conjunction with the IUFRO XX World Congress. FAO. Rome.
• Plotkin, M. and L. Famolare. (Ed). 1992. Sustainable Harvest and Marketing of rain Forest Products. Island Press. Washington, D.C.
• Prah, E.A. 1994. Sustainable management of the Tropical High Forest of Ghana. Commonwealth Secretariat. London.
• Prahbu, R., Colfer, C.J.P., Venkateswarlu, P., Lay, C.T., Soekmadi, R. and E. Wollenberg. Testing Criteria and Indicators for the Sustainable Management of Forests: Phase 1 Final Report. CIFOR Special Publication. CIFOR. Bogor.
• Stork, N.E., Boyle, T.J.B, Dale, V., Eeley, H., Finegan, B., Lawes, M., Manokaran, N., Prabhu, R., and J. Soberon. 1997. Criteria and Indicators for Assessing the Sustainability of Forest Management: Conservation of Biodiversity. Working Paper No. 17. CIFOR. Bogor.

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