Efficient dispatching of timber trucks is a major determinant of cost, productivity, and supply reliability in forest transport systems. In operational contexts, where transport distances are long, pickup locations vary daily, and mills operate under strict time windows, dispatching decisions must account for dynamic constraints including queue conditions, service times, driver duty limits,...
Precise forest management under the increasing pressures of climate change necessitates a transition from static inventory databases to dynamic, high-resolution digital twins. Current modelling approaches frequently rely on episodic remote sensing data, such as LiDAR or aerial photogrammetry, which suffer from temporal latency and fail to reflect the immediate structural changes following...
Demand and price for logging residues in Sweden have increased due to the security situation in Europe and ambitions for energy independence and low‑carbon energy systems. Accurate information on the volume and spatial distribution of logging residues from final fellings is therefore highly valuable for contractors, wood fuel suppliers and end‑users (heating and combined heat‑and‑power...
The demand for domestic energy wood and pulpwood in Finland has been high due to the increased use of forest chips and the cessation of wood imports from Russia. The forestry operations in the supply chain still face a persistent and long-standing challenge: young, often untreated first‑thinning stands are characterised by high stem densities and small‑sized harvested trees, which result in...
According to our Roadmap 2035 Vision for Forest Machine Data and Sensor Technologies in Finland, forest resource data in 2035 will be substantially more accurate in terms of tree volume, quality, changes, harvestability and soil information. Accurate, single-tree interpreted forest resource data will provide high-quality pre-operational information for cost- and energy-efficient,...
Truck weight regulations play a central role in shaping the efficiency, safety, and infrastructure impacts of timber transportation in the southern United States. Under federal law, gross vehicle weight (GVW) is limited to 80,000 lbs. (36,287kg) on interstate highways, while in Alabama, state roads permit up to 88,000 lbs. (39,916kg) through a 10% allowance. This study surveyed logging...
One of the most important parameters for the successful establishment of forest stands and forest habitat restoration programs is forest seedling quality. Some of the traditional methods for seedling quality assessment are invasive, time consuming, and labor-intensive. Hyperspectral imaging, in contrast, provides a noninvasive evaluation method, making it a new and a promising tool for...
Heavy forestry machinery like harvesters or forwarders may damage machine operating trails during their operation by causing rut formation. This damage is mostly due to a combination of the loaded weight of these machines and soil condition, which can also result in increased wheel slip. Therefore, having a method to calculate slip in real time will result in a better understanding of caused...
Seepage water can occur when wood chips are stored outdoors. In relation to precipitation, the amount of seepage water is small. It contains high levels of dissolved organic matter. If such water enters surface waters, it could pose a threat to aquatic life. If the water seeps into humus-rich forest soils, microorganisms decompose the dissolved organic matter of the water quickly and thus...
Electrification is emerging as a key technological pathway for future forest harvesting systems to address existing challenges. These include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy efficiency, and strengthening the resilience of the forest sector to external disruptions, as it is currently heavily dependent on fossil fuels for harvesting and in-forest operations. Major...
Despite increasing fully mechanized timber harvesting, motor-manual operations are still required, for example for the selective removal of high-value individual trees, in sensitive stands or difficult terrain, in calamity patches, or in small private forests. Besides physical strain, these motor-manual tasks entail an elevated accident risk for workers, caused for instance by deadwood,...
This study estimated the availability of unused materials for woody biomass power generation plants registered in FIT (Feed-in Tariff) as the supply potential through the introduction of trailers with 20-t payload instead of trucks with 10-t payload which were widely used on winding road networks in mountainous areas of Japan. As a result, supply potentials of used and unused materials were...
Uncertainty in harvesting output and road accessibility significantly affects supply chain planning and the ability to meet customers’ demand for high-quality wood products in a timely manner. Despite a long-term harvest scheduling, variations in product volumes can reduce delivery precision and increase the risk of product backorders. Weather conditions also influence landing accessibility;...
Climate-driven forest mortality is having an increasingly significant impact on harvesting intensity, the stability of wood flows, and the medium-term availability of timber. However, translating climate signals into operationally meaningful indicators remains challenging, as the strength of the relationship between drought and mortality depends on the spatial scale. This study evaluates the...
The idling of forest machines reduces the energy and cost efficiency of wood-harvesting operations. This study estimated the idling times of forest machines using automatically collected machine big data. The study also examined the impact of machinery type, harvesting enterprise, seasonal variation, engine power, and machine manufacturing year on fuel consumption during idling. Furthermore, a...
High-quality, diverse annotations remain a bottleneck for deploying computer vision in
forestry, where scenes are highly variable and targets are defined by operational context rather than appearance alone. A preliminary, fully autonomous dataset creation workflow is presented that links harvester-mounted RGB video to StanForD production records. The pipeline uses visual language models...
Log truck weights in the US state of Georgia are governed by state law, including limits for gross vehicle weight, single axle, and tandem axle weights. A very small percentage of loads are inspected by law enforcement, however. Some forest products mills have internal policies regarding the weight of delivered loads to reduce liability and protect mill infrastructure. The objectives of this...
Bioenergy accounts for approximately 30% of Sweden’s energy supply, of which about 80% is derived from the forest sector, e.g. in the form of logging residues such as treetops and branches. In recent years, both demand and prices for logging residues have increased in Sweden, driven by societal decarbonisation efforts and ambitions to strengthen national energy independence in response to...
In thinning operations in rotation forestry, reasonable thinning intensity is key to ensuring favorable development of the stand in terms of sawlog yield, growth loss, and carbon sequestration. In recent years, realized thinning intensities in the Nordic countries have often violated recommended limits, and operators have voiced their desire for decision support and reporting assistance in...
In countries with a large forestry sector, road transportation is responsible for a considerable fraction of territorial carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, heavy road freight in rural areas is arguably one of the most challenging cases for electrification. In the project TREE: Transition to efficient electrified forestry transport, 12 fully battery electric roundwood and wood chip...
Resilient forest value chains depend on the adaptive capacity of forest managers at all scales. Small-scale forest owners, who manage a substantial share of Europe’s forest area, play a critical role in ensuring sustainable timber supply, safeguarding biodiversity, and maintaining multifunctional landscapes. However, their decision-making environment is becoming increasingly complex and...
This study assesses the quality and energy potential of softwood plantation harvest residues from south-east Queensland, with the aim of supporting emerging biomass markets. The focus is on the effect of different comminution methods—chipping and grinding—and, for chipped material, the influence of screening.
Harvest residues, mainly clearfall tops and other off-cuts, were collected from...
More competitive wood supply is dependent upon increasing load sizes for timber trucks. With a background of increasing percipitation and temperatures the latest revision of Norwegian forest road standards have been adapted with improved construction and drainage specifications. However, the existing forest road network has been constructed over a time span of 60 years, throughout the...
Accurate estimation of a tree’s expected leaning direction is essential for safe and controlled felling, particularly in complex crown architectures or winch-assisted motor-manual felling operations. In practice, such decisions rely primarily on visual assessment by experienced forestry workers. The extent to which this estimation reflects the tree’s actual mechanical mass distribution and the...
