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Industrial economic models of natural resource management often incentivize the sequential harvesting of resources based on profitability, disproportionately targeting the higher-value elements of the environment. In fisheries, this issue is framed as a problem of “fishing down the food chain” when these elements represent different trophic levels or sequential depletion more generally. Harvesting that focuses on high grading the most profitable, productive, and accessible components of environmental gradients is also thought to occur in the forestry sector. Such a paradigm is inconsistent with a stewardship ethic, entrenched in the forestry literature, that seeks to maintain or enhance forest condition over time. We ask 1) how these conflicting paradigms have influenced patterns of forest harvesting over time and 2) whether more recent conservation-oriented policies influenced these historical harvesting patterns. We use detailed harvest data over a 47-y period and aggregated time series data that span over a century on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada to assess temporal changes in how logging is distributed among various classes of site productivity and terrain accessibility, corresponding to timber value. Most of this record shows a distinct trend of harvesting shifting over time to less productive stands, with some evidence of harvesting occurring in increasingly less accessible forests. However, stewardship-oriented policy changes enacted in the mid-1990s appear to have strongly affected these trends. This illustrates both a profit-maximizing tendency to log down the value chain when choices are unconstrained and the potential of policy choices to impose a greater stewardship ethic on harvesting behavior.

Most forest harvesting operations are performed using two or more forestry machines in combination; in the typical forest production system in steep terrain in Japan, there are four production processes: felling, yarding, processing, and forwarding. It is essential to evaluate the overall productivity of such combined production systems, but the calculation method that indicates the productivity has not been fully established. In this study, we built simulation models of serial, parallel, and sequential production systems by using system dynamics to evaluate their productivity regarding the combined machine productivity (CMP) and combined labor productivity (CLP) indices. Comparing the three types of forest harvesting systems in Japan, the parallel production system had the highest CMP, while the serial production system had the highest CLP; the sequential production system lay between the serial and parallel production systems in terms of CMP and CLP. The overall productivity of Japanese forest production systems was lower than that of Central Europe, where processor tower yarders (PTYs) are used. Thus, the CLP of Japanese forest production systems was improved by 12.8 to 26.5% by incorporating the concept of a PTY, and it can be further improved by eliminating the forwarding process.

There has been a growing awareness of the need for sustainable forest management among forest engineers during the last decades. The selection of the best harvesting system for logging operations plays a fundamental role in this effort. Nowadays, in the decision-making process, forest engineers rely on their own experience, and it is to be expected that their evaluation of the level of appropriateness may be biased. There may be a potential solution to this problem in the implementation of AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) in the GIS (Geographic Information System) environment. The application of AHP gives objective information and thus reduces the level of bias in deciding which logging harvest system is best to use. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of a GIS-AHP approach applied to the development of the harvesting plan of a public forest estate in Central Italy. Three extraction methods were considered: forwarder, cable skidder, and all-terrain cable yarder. Thus, the GIS-AHP model was run by relying on the basic data attainable from the local forest management plan and then on detailed information provided by field data collected from 10 harvested blocks. Among these, in three blocks, the logging harvest method was changed from forwarder to cable skidder. Statistically significant differences were found between the suitability values obtained from the forest management plan and those retrieved from the field surveys for the forwarder and cable skidders but not for all-terrain cable yarders.

In forest operations, the interface between forest companies and harvesting contractors is of special importance, considering that it is the first link in the forest industry’s supply chains. Supply operations account for a significant share of the final costs of wood products (up to 50%). This study investigates the effect of customer–contractor alignment on contractors’ profit margins and on the risk for business relationship breakdown. Alignment is empirically measured for a Swedish forest company and 74 of its harvesting contractors, who were monitored during a four-year period. Two measures of alignment are employed: (1) the customer-perceived value of the contractors’ services; and (2) the contractors’ perceived alignment with the forest company expectations. Results indicate that the two measures of alignment are largely independent from each other, and that customer-perceived value affects both contractor profitability and the risk of relationship breakdown. Conflict between the two parties and lack of trust for the customer were found to be common complaints among contractors who ceased working for the studied forest company. Consequently, customer–contractor alignment should be considered a key objective by contractors who strive for business success, and also by forest companies who wish to improve their supply chain performance.

1. Understanding the impact of forest harvesting is critical to sustainable forest management, yet there remains much uncertainty regarding how harvesting affects soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) dynamics. 2. Here, we conducted a global meta-analysis of 808 observations from 49 studies to test the effects of harvesting on the stocks and concentrations of soil C, N and and C:N:P ratios relative to uncut control stands. 3. With all harvesting intensities combined, C stock was unaffected by harvesting in either the forest floor or mineral soil, while harvesting reduced forest floor [C], [N] and [P] and C:N ratio, increased the mineral soil [C] and C:N ratio, but reduced mineral soil N stock. The impacts of harvesting on forest floor C and N stocks, C:P and N:P and mineral soil [C] and [N] changed from no effects by partial, stem-only and whole-tree harvesting (WTH) to significantly negative effects by the harvesting coupled with fire. Stem-only and WTH similarly reduced forest floor [P]. The negative effects of harvesting were most pronounced in conifer stands. Soil [C], [N] and C:N decreased with time since harvesting, but soil [P] did not, resulting in an increase in forest floor N:P. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our findings highlight the importance of harvest intensity and rotation length on long-term soil nutrient availability when managing forests. Furthermore, the lag in the recovery of phosphorus concentration following harvesting may indicate a decoupling of the phosphorus cycle from those of carbon and nitrogen, and a potential concern in managed forests.

Limiting surface soil disturbance caused by forest harvesting machines is an important task and is influenced by the selection of efficient and reliable predictors of such disturbance. Our objective was to determine whether soil moisture content affects soil load bearing capacity and the formation of ruts. Measurements were conducted in six forest stands where various machines operated. We measured the formation of ruts along skid trails in connection with varying soil moisture content. Soil moisture content was determined through the gravimetric sampling method. Our results showed that severe（rut depth16–25 cm） to very severe disturbance（rut depth [26 cm）occurred in forest stands where the instantaneous soil moisture exceeded its plasticity limits defined through Atterberg limits. Atterberg limits of soil plasticity ranged from 26 to 32 % in individual stands. Regression and correlation analysis confirmed a moderately strong relationship（R = 0.52; p ／ 0.05） between soil moisture content and average rut depth. This confirmed that soil moisture is a suitable and effective predictor of soil disturbance.

Plantation forests are established, and expanding, to satisfy increasing global demand for timber products. Shifting societal values, such as safety, productivity, environmental, quality and social are influencing the plantation forestry sector. This is primarily driven through an ever increasing world population, which in turn influences the way nations view the value systems by which they live. More people require more resources—also forest products. Also, the availability of information is influencing the pace of technological development. These changes could result in a difference in the management of plantations that could affect the forest engineering systems of the future. This review aimed to summarize the current status of plantation forests; summarize future developments and possible scenarios in forest plantation management for the various products; and assess whether these developments in a plantation environment could affect the harvesting systems used. Factors influencing the form of plantations include the type and nature of the plantation owner; the change in demand for different and new forest products; climate change factors, including the use of biomass for energy, carbon sequestration and trading; ecosystem services and other products and services; and sustainability certification of forest management. The impact and influence of these factors were summarised into a series of key drivers that will influence the technology used in harvesting machines, as well as the choice of harvesting machines, systems and methods. These drivers were the effect of variations in tree size, the expansion of plantation areas onto more difficult terrain, diversity in plantation design, increased attention towards site impacts and the increased use of biomass for energy. Specific information is provided regarding how the harvesting systems could be affected.

Since the 1950s, large areas of upland peat have been afforested in northern European countries. Due to the poor phosphorus (P) adsorption capacity and low hydraulic permeability in blanket peat soil and increased labile P sources, harvesting these blanket peat forests can significantly increase P concentrations in the receiving aquatic systems. This paper briefly reviews the current management practices on the control of P releases from forestry in Ireland and the UK, and proposes a possible novel practice—grass seeding clearfelled areas immediately after harvesting, which should reduce P release from blanket peat forest harvesting. The study was conducted in the Burrishoole Catchment in the west of Ireland. A field trial was carried out to identify the successful native grass species that could grow quickly in the blanket peat forest. The two successful grass species— Holcus lanatus and Agrostis capillaris —were sown in three blanket peat forest study plots with areas of 100, 360, and 660 m 2 immediately after harvesting. Areas without grass seeding were used as controls. One year later, the P content in the aboveground vegetation biomass of the three study plots were 2.83, 0.65, and 3.07 kg P ha −1 , respectively, which were significantly higher than the value of 0.02 kg P ha −1 in the control areas. The water extractable phosphorus in the three study plots were 8.44, 9.83, and 6.04 mg (kg dry soil) −1 , respectively, which were lower than the value of 25.72 mg (kg dry soil) −1 in the control sites. The results indicate that grass seeding of the peatland immediately after harvesting can quickly immobilize significant amounts of P and warrants additional research as a new Best Management Practice following harvesting in the blanket peatland forest to mitigate P release.

Satellite remote sensing has long been used to monitor forest harvesting with accuracies appropriate for practical mapping across a wide range of forest types by using different sensors. Unfortunately, in Italy, most of the cuts take place in winter where the cloud cover is very high, making it impossible an early detection by optical data. In this framework, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data such as Sentinel-1 (S1) allows a better land monitoring by penetrating cloud cover. In this work we tested some methods for time series breakpoint detection with the aim of mapping significant forest cover changes in 2019 over an Italian forested area. These maps can be useful tools to support the focusing of field surveys by forest police with the aim of increasing the monitorable areas and decreasing the related field survey costs. Four methods were proposed and compared based on the analysis of SAR polarimetric index time series (Cross Ratio index). In particular, adopted methods search for a breakpoint in the cross-ratio time series assuming it as moment after that forest canopy temporal behaviour significantly change. In general, high overall accuracy and user’s accuracy were found for all methods while producer’s accuracy and K values are lower denoting an underestimation of harvested areas by single method. Conversely, combining all methods into a final classification shows highest user’s accuracy (> 0.9) in detecting forests harvestings when more than two classification methods were adopted.

Forests provide a series of ecosystem services that are crucial to our society. In the European Union (EU), forests account for approximately 38% of the total land surface 1 . These forests are important carbon sinks, and their conservation efforts are vital for the EU’s vision of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 2 . However, the increasing demand for forest services and products, driven by the bioeconomy, poses challenges for sustainable forest management. Here we use fine-scale satellite data to observe an increase in the harvested forest area (49 per cent) and an increase in biomass loss (69 per cent) over Europe for the period of 2016–2018 relative to 2011–2015, with large losses occurring on the Iberian Peninsula and in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Satellite imagery further reveals that the average patch size of harvested area increased by 34 per cent across Europe, with potential effects on biodiversity, soil erosion and water regulation. The increase in the rate of forest harvest is the result of the recent expansion of wood markets, as suggested by econometric indicators on forestry, wood-based bioenergy and international trade. If such a high rate of forest harvest continues, the post-2020 EU vision of forest-based climate mitigation may be hampered, and the additional carbon losses from forests would require extra emission reductions in other sectors in order to reach climate neutrality by 2050 3 . Fine-scale satellite data are used to quantify forest harvest rates in 26 European countries, finding an increase in harvested forest area of 49% and an increase in biomass loss of 69% between 2011–2015 and 2016–2018.