Artikkelit jotka sisältää sanan 'tree harvesting'

Commercial thinning is a common practice when growing even-aged stands in the Nordic countries. Thinning from below is carried out to harvest suppressed and part of the mid-sized trees that cannot successfully compete for resources and have become grown over by co-dominant and dominant trees. In five field experiments, we studied the effects of harvesting method on the nutrient amount of logging residues left at the site in thinning of Scots pine stands. Comparison was carried out between four harvesting methods representing different levels for forest-residue recovery: SOH (stem-only harvesting down to a diameter of 7 cm, SOH-E (stem-only harvesting down to a diameter of 2 cm),WTH (whole-tree harvesting including stems, tops and branches) and WTH-M (WTH and manual collection of those logging residues which were left in mechanical harvesting). In each experiment, logging residues were weighed and sampled for determination of their nutrient concentrations, and soil samples were taken from the surface peat layer (0–20 cm) for nutrient analyses. In SOH treatments, all residues and nutrients bound in the logging residues were left at the site. In WTH 28–67% and in WTH-M 4–20% of the nutrients remained at the site, with the figure depending on the experiment. The amounts of N (1%), P (1–4%), Ca (2–5%), and Mg (3–8%) bound in the logging residues in SOH were low in comparison to the corresponding amounts in the 0–20 cm peat layer. However, the amount of K in logging residues represented 10–26% and the amount of B 8–15% compared with the corresponding nutrients in peat. The amount of N, P, and K in logging residues after CTL harvesting was 39–86, 3–7, and 9–21 kg•ha-1, respectively. The corresponding figures after WTH were 15–36, 1–3, and 3–9 kg ha-1. We assume that WHT on peatland sites that are prone to K deficiency or already have a detected shortage may increase a risk for nutrient imbalances and growth loss in remaining tree stand.

• Hytönen, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Silmäjärventie 2, 69100 Kannus, Finland Sähköposti: ei.tietoa@nn.oo
• Moilanen, Sähköposti: ei.tietoa@nn.oo

This case study represents a novel complete wood biomass harvesting method for woody peatlands, which are to be prepared for peat production for energy use. The productivity and cost-efficiency of complete tree harvesting in a peatland forest dominated by Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) was examined in this study. In complete tree harvesting, a single-grip harvester lifts a whole tree with its roots from the ground and divides the tree into stump and stem part sections by cross-cutting. This work method was compared to the conventional harvesting method, wherein the stem wood and stump wood are harvested in separate operations with different machines. The work study was conducted for complete tree cutting and conventional tree cutting by a single-grip harvester. In total there were 97.6 solid cubic metres (m³) of wood harvested in the study. The harvesting cost of the extracted wood (stump section, stem wood and crown mass) to the road side landing was calculated for both harvesting methods by using time study models of cutting obtained from this study and the separate stump lifting and biomass forwarding models acquired from the literature. According to the results, the complete tree harvesting was cost-competitive to conventional harvesting (including stem wood, crown mass and stump extraction) when the breast height diameter of the trees to be removed was below the range of 16–20 cm.

• Laitila, Metsäntutkimuslaitos, PL 68, 80101 Joensuu Sähköposti: ei.tietoa@nn.oo
• Väätäinen, Sähköposti: ei.tietoa@nn.oo
• Asikainen, Sähköposti: ei.tietoa@nn.oo

The effect of tree stand thinning and ditch network maintenance on the water table level was studied in an uneven-aged Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stand growing on a drained dwarf shrub pine bog in southern Finland. The water table level was monitored once a week during the growing seasons (May–September) of 1991–1999. This time span is divided into the following treatment periods: calibration (1991–1992), thinning (1993–1994), ditch cleaning (1995), and proper ditch network maintenance (1996–1999). The growing season of 1995 was not included in the calculations because the ditch cleaning treatment failed. The layout included three thinning intensities (9.5, 15.0, and 28.1% removal of the initial stand volume) and an unthinned control. For the ditch maintenance treatment there was an additional control sample plot. The effect of the treatments on the water table level was evaluated both by a graphical approach and linear regression analysis. Only a slight, ecologically insignificant rise in the water table level was caused by the thinning cuttings. Ditch maintenance seemed to eliminate this change. It was concluded that in the planning stage, a careful evaluation of the real need of maintaining the ditch network (ditch cleaning or complementary ditching) should be done in connection with the first commercial thinning in order to avoid unnecessary costs.

• Päivänen, Department of Forest Ecology, Box 24, FIN-00014 Helsinki University, Finland Sähköposti: ei.tietoa@nn.oo
• Sarkkola, Sähköposti: ei.tietoa@nn.oo