Productivity and Cost of Cable-Assisted Felling and Extraction in the Pacific Northwest, USA

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chung W ; Crawford R ; Garland J ; Green P ; Leshchinsky B ; Sessions J ; Wimer J
• Description:
  Logging and timber falling in the Pacific Northwest continue to be one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. Mechanization for steep slope harvesting may be successful in reducing logging-related accidents and provides operators the ability to continue working in the face of an aging and declining workforce. However, with such a significant capital investment required of forestry heavy machinery, productivity and cost models are often given heavy consideration when determining both economic and operational feasibility of a harvesting system. This study has two main objectives. The first is to develop four different productivity and cost (hereafter denoted as P&C) models of current and new harvesting systems used in the Pacific Northwest with several different measurable external independent variables. The second objective is to be able to make comparisons at a harvest-unit scale between the four systems through not only P&C analysis, but also between safety and environmental impacts. Safety and environmental impacts are out of the scope of this specific study, but anticipated to be addressed through collaboration with other studies. The four different systems analyzed are: 1) conventional hand-falling with both tower-yarding and grapple yarding as the extraction method, 2) cut-to-length harvesting with a cable-assisted harvester/forwarder, 3) cable-assisted feller-buncher machine paired with a tethered skidder for extraction, and 4) cable-assisted feller-buncher machine with grapple yarding. The overall goal of this ongoing research is to be able to optimize harvest layout and system design. From haul route locations, to skyline corridors needed, all aspects will go into unit layout planning. It is the intention of this study is to give contractors and landowners tools necessary to design steep-slope harvesting operations efficiently and safely in a systematic and efficient way. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Forestry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Productivity Cable-assist Tech Cost Costs Environmental Impacts Equipment Operation Logging Industry Machinery
• ISBN:
  9783902762887
• Publisher:
  International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• 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:
  35
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060739
• Citation:
  IUFRO 125th Anniversary Congress 2017, September 18-22, 2017, Freiburg, Germany. Vienna, Austria: International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), 2017 Sep; :35
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  Oregon State University - Corvallis
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20150901
• Source Full Name:
  IUFRO 125th Anniversary Congress 2017, September 18-22, 2017, Freiburg, Germany
• End Date:
  20180831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e2b47a4344fbf23450058b70b5b44eb84568c2fefe96cc557765248d52997597103c0ad13acf974d3acabd55ea3ad979d918c24523e8774e00e6c9540d0f897f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224564/cdc_224564_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 95.14 KB ]