Insight into the Productivity, Cost and Soil Impacts of Cable-Assisted Harvester-Forwarder Thinning in Western Oregon

Details

• Personal Author:
  Belart F ; Chung W ; Cushing T ; Fitzgerald SA ; Garland JJ ; Green PQ ; Leshchinsky B ; Sessions J ; Wimer JA
• Description:
  Cable-assisted (or tethered) mechanized harvesting has recently been introduced to the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and is rapidly being adopted by the forest industry. However, potential environmental impacts, productivity and cost of the new harvesting systems have not been well-assessed. This study aims to examine the effects of cable assistance on soil compaction, system productivity and cost through a field-based experiment. A harvester-forwarder system was used to thin a harvest unit on dry soils in western Oregon, with and without cable-assistance. We conducted a detailed time study during operations and collected soil measurements before and after machine passes. Machine productivity ranged from 28.75 to 92.36 m3 per scheduled machine hour, with resulting unit costs for untethered and tethered systems ranging from $13.19 to $18.13/m3. Our results showed reduced soil impacts in both extent and degree of soil compaction when cable assistance was employed. The reduced extent of soil impacts is attributed to a reduction in track wander owing to the operative tensions of the tether cable, and the smaller increase in soil density appears to be attributed to combined effects of initially denser soil conditions and reduced shear displacement as a result of cable-assistance. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Forestry Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Steep Terrain Environmental Impacts Harvesting Logging Industry Machine Rates Risk Factors Slope Stability Soil Impacts Tethered Assist System
• ISSN:
  0015-749X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Oregon ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  82-96
• Volume:
  66
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060138
• Citation:
  For Sci 2020 Feb; 66(1):82-96
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  Oregon State University - Corvallis
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20150901
• Source Full Name:
  Forest Science
• End Date:
  20180831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:fe6f082c049c24fdd45e59fc10bcbb7371e2971ec497a7b30bc805003300baae94f25e945a8e638ba84786481d224d564a66b6a8e252f6c5e779e9ac92c8bd26
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224142/cdc_224142_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.99 MB ]