Productivity and Environmental Impacts of Cable-Assisted Logging: A Case Study in Southern Oregon, USA

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chung W ; Morrissette B ; Green P ; Leshchinsky B ; Bladon K ; Hatten J ; Sessions J
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Cable-assisted, mechanized timber harvesting systems have recently been adopted by the forest industry in the Pacific Northwest, USA to replace conventional and dangerous manual tree felling on steep slopes. Despite its promise and rapid growth, the potential risk of damage to soil and water resources caused by heavy equipment on steep slopes remains uncertain, and has not yet been thoroughly examined. We conducted a comparative case study in southern Oregon to investigate the economic and environmental impacts of cable-assisted, mechanized timber felling in steep terrain by comparing mechanical felling with conventional manual felling followed by cable-logging. We performed detailed time studies on manual felling, mechanical felling, cable-logging after manual felling, and cable-logging after mechanical felling. Environmental impacts of these systems were measured through pre-felling, post-felling, and post-extraction samples of soil bulk density, penetration resistance, water infiltration rates, and sediment yield. The significance of this research is the development of data that can provide insights into potential economic and environmental impacts of cable-assisted timber harvesting relative to the conventional harvesting method in steep terrain. Slides from the presentation are available here: https://www.formec.org/images/proceedings/2019/presentations/A-0117.pdf.
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Logging industry; Forestry; Environmental impacts; Equipment operation; Machinery; Costs
• Subseries:
  20180831
• ISBN:
  9789633343432
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract
• Place as Subject:
  Oregon
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  18
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060727
• Citation:
  Proceedings of the 52nd International Symposium on Forestry Mechanization (FORMEC 2019): Exceeding the Vision: Forest Mechanisation of the Future, October 6-10, 2019, Sopron, Hungary/Forchtenstein, Austria
• Email:
  woodam.chung@oregonstate.edu
• Editor(s):
  Czupy I
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  University of Sopron Press
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Proceedings of the 52nd International Symposium on Forestry Mechanization (FORMEC 2019): Exceeding the Vision: Forest Mechanisation of the Future, October 6-10, 2019, Sopron, Hungary/Forchtenstein, Austria. Czupy I ed. Sopron, Hungary: University of Sopron Press, 2019 Oct; :18
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7dc847c09aedf140bc731323e8446b4703641ae07d6ad9e7b7238120dab30b8f7dcaa9b938d34d035f87873a0fe7fec262d5d13dcaf290925445e82b6de3b57d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/250972/cdc_250972_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 168.02 KB ]