Abstract
Increased mechanisation in forestry usually means increased traffic over the ground, which also is a substrate for growth. Soil compaction, rut formation, and damage to stems and roots may all result in growth reduction. To reduce soil disturbance and tree damage, smaller machines or machines with less ground pressure must be considered. Today the traffic may cover 10–30% of the site area. This is mainly due to skidding during clear-felling and thinning. If present trends of heavy mechanisation continue, in the future there could be as many as six machine entries onto the site by the time a stand has reached an age of 50 years. Rut formation from forwarders and skidders is a problem. Harvesters seem to cause minor problems. The engine torque powering the driving wheels adds considerably to the influence of the total weight of the vehicle on the ground. High traction forces and slipping may contribute twice as much to soil disturbance as the vehicle ground pressure. When designing forest machinery for transportation of timber the payload itself is the most complicated problem. During the XIX World Congress of the International Union of Forestry Research Organisations (IUFRO) in Montreal, Canada, 1990, a Project Group on Forest Operations and Environmental Protection was established within IUFRO Division 3. From the author's point of view, concern about biodiversity is not taken into account through single-track and profit-oriented forestry in some areas and total preservation in other areas. It is the manifold of different ways of forestry that is the answer to sustainable development and conservation of biodiversity.
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Furuberg Gjedtjernet, A.M. Forest operations and environmental protection. Water Air Soil Pollut 82, 35–41 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01182816
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01182816