Located in the heart of the Western Carpathian Mountains, Slovakia has a high share of its forest land in mountainous or hilly terrain. In this morphologically and geologically difficult terrain, an adequate harvesting system is required to operate efficiently, prevent environmental degradation and secure forest workers' safety. A large proportion of machinery used in harvesting operations in...
Intensive forestry operations can lead to soil compaction, plastic soil disturbances, and rutting, which negatively impact soils, vegetation, and water bodies. Although many studies have explored the main factors influencing soil damage, it remains unclear whether wood extraction methods and driving direction affect the impacts of forest machinery. Specifically, the differences in soil damage...
The identification of standing tree species, forest timber assortments, and on-site as-sessment of their quality and value using images would be widely useful for a variety of applications. In this study, we used the Orange data mining software to classify images of forest wood assortments by tree species and value. The software applies deep learning algorithms for image classification. Our...
Mechanized cut‑to‑length harvest operations with clear cutting as the final operation within the rotation is the predominant harvest method in Fennoscandian forestry. However, interest in continuous-cover-forestry (CCF) methods is increasing. CCF methods such as shelterwoods and patch cuttings can contribute to maintain stand continuity and can provide ecological and social benefits but may...
Harvester data with accurate GNSS position provides a potentially valuable source of detailed information for forest inventory in first-thinning stands. In thinning operations performed with modern harvesters, all trees along strip roads are removed, forming a systematic line sample that represent approximately 15–20% of the stand. This study investigates how strip road trees can be identified...
Ground-based forest harvesting operations can substantially disturb soil through mechanisms such as compaction and rutting, posing long-term risks to forest productivity and sustainability. In boreal forest systems, soil trafficability maps derived from the depth-to-water (DTW) index are commonly used to identify areas vulnerable to machine-induced soil damage. However, the applicability and...
Forest harvesting operations inevitably affect forest ecosystems, and in order to apply Sustainable Forest Operation a careful planning is essential mainly with high level of mechanization employed. This case study was developed within the framework of the AGRITECH project in one of the first living lab activated. The study area is located in Central Italy in a Turkey oak forest managed as...
The current development of harvesters and harvesting systems makes it possible to calculate timber volume with a high accuracy, albeit over bark. Despite this, countries where timber is traded based on under-bark measurements, such as Poland, continue to measure volume manually or using photo-optical methods. Meanwhile in Finland, where over-bark measurement is in use, the volume calculated by...
Forest management faces increasing uncertainty due to climate-driven changes in forest dynamics, disturbances and growing economic constraints on timber harvesting, particularly in mountainous terrain and areas with limited forest accessibility.
For policy implementation and long-term planning, both in government and the timber industry, it is essential to have estimates about the future...
The digital transformation of forest inventories needs the validation of consumer-grade sensors over different phenological stages. This study evaluates the seasonal measurement agreement of stand-level basal area (BA) estimates and operational efficiency between the TreeScanner smartphone application and the FJD Trion P1 professional personal laser scanner (PLS). Research was conducted in...
Boom-corridor thinning (BCT) has been proposed as a promising alternative for treatment of dense stands with small-diameter trees, as it promote higher harvester productivity due to effective crane work in comparison to traditional selective thinning (ST). BCT can be performed using high to low degree of systematic approach, from strict (following a strict pattern) to flexible (adjusting the...
Rut formation, entailing both a disturbance of soil functions and impaired machine mobility, is a common risk when operating ground-based forest machines under unfavourable soil conditions. As a complement to technical approaches such as flotation tires or bogie tracks as well as planning support tools such as trafficability maps, we present a concept of trafficability prediction for a...
Harvester-mounted mobile laser scanning (HarvMLS) is a novel approach to quantify forest structure in situ during harvesting operations. However, its reliability relative to established aerial- and ground-based laser scanning systems remains unknown. In this study, we quantified forest structure, assessed structural changes caused by thinning, and benchmarked HarvMLS against drone-based laser...
The accurate measurement of individual, high-quality logs is a critical operational task in the timber trade, particularly during timber auctions where roundwood is traded individually and commands premium prices per cubic meter. In these high-stakes environments, even minor deviations in volume estimation can result in substantial economic losses for either buyers or sellers. Consequently,...
Selecting the most appropriate harvesting system is a critical decision in forest operations. In practice, this choice is often based primarily on the experience of forest technicians or logging contractors. Increasingly, however, there is a need for more objective and transparent approaches that can support decisions in complex operational contexts. In recent years, the integration of...
Fungal sapwood discolouration is a major cause of value loss in Norway spruce sawlogs and directly affects grading outcomes according to EN 1927-1. Spores of fungi responsible for sap-stain are naturally widespread in forest ecosystems and spread via insects, wind, rain splash, and contaminated harvesting equipment, increasing the risk of quality loss during log storage.
This study...
The increasing frequency of severe windstorms in Central European forests has led to extensive salvage logging operations that can have lasting effects on the integrity of the soil and related pedological and biological functioning.
This study quantified the extent and degree of soil disturbance following fully mechanized salvage logging in the University Forest Enterprise near Brno, Czechia,...
Tree diameter at breast height (DBH) and tree height (H) are essential parameters for monitoring forest growth and estimating carbon sequestration. Conventional field-based measurements are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly. In recent years, LiDAR technology has increasingly been applied in forestry due to its efficiency and long-term cost-effectiveness. However, extracting DBH and H...
Mountain forests often provide protection against gravitational natural hazards and supply multiple ecosystem services but are increasingly vulnerable to climate-change-enhanced disturbances due to legacies of past spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) promotion. To optimize the allocation of limited operational resources, forest managers must spatially prioritize interventions that balance...
In Mediterranean forestry, thinning of pine forests is mainly done with traditional harvesting system (THS) due to its versatility and low investment and relocation costs compared to specialized machinery. However, THS is based on winch coupled to farm tractor with a large share of manual work for felling and processing tasks. The increasing lack of workforce for these activities may be solved...
This study analyzes and compares the productivity and economic efficiency of pull-through delimbers and processors in the processing of whole trees from partially mechanized timber harvesting in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In forest-rich and topographically challenging regions such as the Black Forest, fully mechanized harvesting systems often reach operational limits. As a result, adapted...
For given wheel loads, the ground pressure exerted by off-road vehicles such as forwarders is to a large extent influenced by tire width and tire inflation pressure. Thus, wide flotation tires, but also flotation bogie tracks, are well-established means of reducing soil disturbance and maintaining machine mobility in forest operations. While reduced tire inflation pressures applicable in...
Accurate single-tree volume estimation is fundamental to forest inventory and operational planning in timber harvesting. Conventional volume estimation relies on field-measured tree dimensions such as diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height, and occasionally upper-stem diameters, which are labour-intensive and costly to acquire at scale. Mobile laser scanning (MLS) offers an efficient...
Reliable, high‑throughput evaluation of internal wood quality is a critical enabler for modern mechanized forestry and downstream processing. We report a compact set of results from an imaging‑based workflow for automated analysis of roundwood, focusing on (i) robust separation of bark from solid wood and (ii) consistent detection of slices containing internal defects such as knots, cracks, or...
In even-aged young Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forests, first thinning plays a crucial role in maintaining sustainable carbon sinks. However, forest owners often postpone thinning due to the low operational productivity (m³ Eₕ⁻¹), which reduces profitability and, consequently, contractor and industry interest. To address this sustainability challenge, we modeled boom-corridor thinning with...
