Logging

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A Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus) being felled using springboards, c. 1884-1917, Australia Felling a gumtree c1884-1917 Powerhouse Museum.jpg
A Eucalyptus ( Eucalyptus ) being felled using springboards, c. 1884–1917, Australia
McGiffert Log Loader in East Texas, US, c. 1907 McGiffert Log Loader c. 1907.jpg
McGiffert Log Loader in East Texas, US, c. 1907
Lumber under snow in Montgomery, Colorado, 1880s Winter in Montgomery, circa 1880s - DPLA - a85550daf546d80511282cac549cefaa.jpg
Lumber under snow in Montgomery, Colorado, 1880s

Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks [1] or skeleton cars. In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used narrowly to describe the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard. In common usage, however, the term may cover a range of forestry or silviculture activities.

Contents

Logging is the beginning of a supply chain that provides raw material for many products societies worldwide use for housing, construction, energy, and consumer paper products. Logging systems are also used to manage forests, reduce the risk of wildfires, and restore ecosystem functions, [2] though their efficiency for these purposes has been challenged. [3]

Logging frequently has negative impacts. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including the use of corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission or from a protected area; the cutting of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. [4] It may involve the so-called "timber mafia". [5] [6] Excess logging can lead to irreparable harm to ecosystems, such as deforestation and biodiversity loss. [7] [8] Infrastructure for logging can also lead to other environmental degradation. These negative environmental impacts can lead to environmental conflict. [7] [8] Additionally, there is significant occupational injury risk involved in logging.

Logging can take many formats. Clearcutting (or "block cutting") is not necessarily considered a type of logging but a harvesting or silviculture method. Cutting trees with the highest value and leaving those with lower value, often diseased or malformed trees, is referred to as high grading. It is sometimes called selective logging, and confused with selection cutting, the practice of managing stands by harvesting a proportion of trees. [9] Logging usually refers to above-ground forestry logging. Submerged forests exist on land that has been flooded by damming to create reservoirs. Harvesting trees from forests submerged by flooding or dam creation is called underwater logging, a form of timber recovery. [10]

Clearcutting

Clearing 150,000 trees at Cwmcarn Forest, Ebbw Valle, Wales

Clearcutting, or clearfelling, is a method of harvesting that removes essentially all the standing trees in a selected area. Depending on management objectives, a clearcut may or may not have reserve trees left to attain goals other than regeneration, [1] including wildlife habitat management, mitigation of potential erosion or water quality concerns. Silviculture objectives for clearcutting, (for example, healthy regeneration of new trees on the site) and a focus on forestry distinguish it from deforestation. Other methods include shelterwood cutting, group selective, single selective, seed-tree cutting, patch cut, and retention cutting.[ citation needed ]

Logging methods

The Washington Iron Works Skidder in Nuniong is the only one of its kind in Australia, with donkey engine, spars, and cables still rigged for work. Washington winch panorama.jpg
The Washington Iron Works Skidder in Nuniong is the only one of its kind in Australia, with donkey engine, spars, and cables still rigged for work.

The above operations can be carried out by different methods, of which the following three are considered industrial methods:

Tree-length logging / stem-only harvesting

Trees are felled and then delimbed and topped at the stump. The log is then transported to the landing, where it is bucked and loaded on a truck. This leaves the slash (and the nutrients it contains) in the cut area, where it must be further treated if wild land fires are of concern.[ citation needed ]

Whole-tree logging

Horse logging in Poland Zrywka drewna w Masywie Snieznika PL.jpg
Horse logging in Poland
Cable logging in French Alps (cable grue Larix 3T) Larix3T.JPG
Cable logging in French Alps (cable grue Larix 3T)

Trees and plants are felled and transported to the roadside with top and limbs intact. There have been advancements to the process which now allows a logger or harvester to cut the tree down, top, and delimb a tree in the same process. This ability is due to the advancement in the style felling head that can be used. The trees are then delimbed, topped, and bucked at the landing. This method requires that slash be treated at the landing. In areas with access to cogeneration facilities, the slash can be chipped and used for the production of electricity or heat. Full-tree harvesting also refers to utilization of the entire tree including branches and tops. [11] This technique removes both nutrients and soil cover from the site and so can be harmful to the long-term health of the area if no further action is taken, however, depending on the species, many of the limbs are often broken off in handling so the result may not be as different from tree-length logging as it might seem.[ citation needed ]

Cut-to-length logging

Cut-to-length logging is the process of felling, delimbing, bucking, and sorting (pulpwood, sawlog, etc.) at the stump area, leaving limbs and tops in the forest. Mechanical harvesters fell the tree, delimb, and buck it, and place the resulting logs in bunks to be brought to the landing by a skidder or forwarder. This method is routinely available for trees up to 900 mm (35 in) in diameter.

Transporting logs

Timber floating in Vilnius, 1873 1870-1880-Timber-floating-in-Vilnius.jpg
Timber floating in Vilnius, 1873
Logging with Belarus MTZ-82-L in Estonia 2021

Logging methods have changed over time, driven by advancements in transporting timber from remote areas to markets. These shifts fall into three main eras: the manual logging era before the 1880s, the railroad logging era from the 1880s to World War II, and the modern mechanized era that began after the war. [12]

Pre-1880s: Pre-Industrial Era

In the early days, felled logs were transported using simple methods such as rivers to float tree trunks downstream to sawmills or paper mills. This practice, known as log driving or timber rafting, was the cheapest and most common. Some logs, due to high resin content, would sink and were known as deadheads. Logs were also moved with high-wheel loaders, a set of wheels over ten feet tall, initially pulled by oxen. [13]

1880s to World War II: Railroad Logging Era

As the logging industry expanded, the 1880s saw the introduction of mechanized equipment like railroads and steam-powered machinery, marking the beginning of the railroad logging era. Logs were moved more efficiently by railroads built into remote forest areas, often supported by additional methods like high-wheel loaders, tractors and log flumes. [14] The largest high-wheel loader, the "Bunyan Buggie," was built in 1960 for service in California, featuring wheels 24 feet (7.3 m) high. [15]

Post-World War II: Modern Mechanized Logging

After World War II, mechanized logging equipment, including chainsaws, diesel trucks, and Caterpillar tractors, transformed the logging industry, making railroad-based logging obsolete. With the advent of these tools, transporting logs became more efficient as new roads were constructed to access remote forests. However, in protected areas like United States National Forests and designated wilderness zones, road building has been restricted to minimize environmental impacts such as erosion in riparian zones.

Today, heavy machinery such as yarders and skyline systems are used to gather logs from steep terrain, while helicopters are used for heli-logging to minimize environmental impact. [16] Less common forms of logging, like horse logging and the use of oxen, still exist but are mostly superseded. [17]

Safety considerations

Logging is a dangerous occupation. In the United States, it has consistently been one of the most hazardous industries and was recognized by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a priority industry sector in the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) to identify and provide intervention strategies regarding occupational health and safety issues. [18] [2]

In 2008, the logging industry employed 86,000 workers and accounted for 93 deaths. This resulted in a fatality rate of 108.1 deaths per 100,000 workers that year. This rate is over 30 times higher than the overall fatality rate. [19] Forestry/logging-related injuries (fatal and non-fatal) are often difficult to track through formal reporting mechanisms. Thus, some programs have begun to monitor injuries through publicly available reports such as news media. [20] The logging industry experiences the highest fatality rate of 23.2 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers and a non-fatal incident rate of 8.5 per 100 FTE workers. The most common type of injuries or illnesses at work include musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which include an extensive list of "inflammatory and degenerative conditions affecting the muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, peripheral nerves, and supporting blood vessels." [21] Loggers work with heavy, moving weights, and use tools such as chainsaws and heavy equipment on uneven and sometimes steep or unstable terrain. Loggers also deal with severe environmental conditions, such as inclement weather and severe heat or cold. An injured logger is often far from professional emergency treatment.[ citation needed ]

Traditionally, the cry of "Timber!" developed as a warning alerting fellow workers in an area that a tree is being felled, so they should be alert to avoid being struck. The term "widowmaker" for timber, typically a limb or branch that is no longer attached to a tree, but is still in the canopy either wedged in a crotch, tangled in other limbs, or miraculously balanced on another limb demonstrates another emphasis on situational awareness as a safety principle. [22]

In British Columbia, Canada, the BC Forest Safety Council was created in September 2004 as a not-for-profit society dedicated to promoting safety in the forest sector. It works with employers, workers, contractors, and government agencies to implement fundamental changes necessary to make it safer to earn a living in forestry. [23]

The risks experienced in logging operations can be somewhat reduced, where conditions permit, by the use of mechanical tree harvesters, skidders, and forwarders. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lumberjack</span> Worker who performs the initial harvesting of trees

Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled using hand tools and dragged by oxen to rivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illegal logging</span> Harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws

Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a protected area; the cutting down of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. Illegal logging is a driving force for a number of environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion and biodiversity loss which can drive larger-scale environmental crises such as climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cut-to-length logging</span>

Cut-to-length logging (CTL) is a mechanized harvesting system in which trees are delimbed and cut to length directly at the stump. CTL is typically a two-man, two-machine operation with a harvester felling, delimbing, and bucking trees and a forwarder transporting the logs from the felling to a landing area close to a road accessible by trucks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feller buncher</span> Type of harvester used in logging

A feller buncher is a type of harvester used in logging. It is a motorized vehicle with an attachment that can rapidly gather and cut a tree before felling it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvester (forestry)</span> Type of forestry vehicle employed in logging operations

A harvester is a type of heavy forestry vehicle employed in cut-to-length logging operations for felling, delimbing and bucking trees. A forest harvester is typically employed together with a skidder that hauls the logs to a roadside landing, for a forwarder to pick up and haul away.

Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, as well as quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clearcutting</span> Forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down

Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of forest ecosystems and to promote select species that require an abundance of sunlight or grow in large, even-age stands. Logging companies and forest-worker unions in some countries support the practice for scientific, safety and economic reasons, while detractors consider it a form of deforestation that destroys natural habitats and contributes to climate change. Environmentalists, traditional owners, local residents and others have regularly campaigned against clearcutting, including through the use of blockades and nonviolent direct action.

Articles on forestry topics include:.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limbing</span> Process of removing branches from a tree trunk

Limbing or delimbing is the process of removing branches from a standing or fallen tree trunk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Selection cutting</span> Forestry practice

Selection cutting, also known as selection system, is the silvicultural practice of harvesting trees in a way that moves a forest stand towards an uneven-aged or all-aged condition, or 'structure'. Using stocking models derived from the study of old growth forests, selection cutting, also known as 'selection system', or 'selection silviculture', manages the establishment, continued growth and final harvest of multiple age classes of trees within a stand. A closely related approach to forest management is Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF), which makes use of selection systems to achieve a permanently irregular stand structure.

Sakari Pinomäki (1933–2011) was a Finnish systems engineer and an inventor, who pioneered the mechanized forestry industry. He was the founder of PIKA Forest Machines which produced the first purpose-built forest machine in 1964 in Ylöjärvi , Finland. His inventions had over 50 patents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forest management</span> Branch of forestry

Forest management is a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, forest protection, and forest regulation. This includes management for timber, aesthetics, recreation, urban values, water, wildlife, inland and nearshore fisheries, wood products, plant genetic resources, and other forest resource values. Management objectives can be for conservation, utilisation, or a mixture of the two. Techniques include timber extraction, planting and replanting of different species, building and maintenance of roads and pathways through forests, and preventing fire.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and guide to forestry:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felling</span> Process of cutting down trees

Felling is the process of cutting down trees, an element of the task of logging. The person cutting the trees is a lumberjack. A feller buncher is a machine capable of felling a single large tree or grouping and felling several small ones simultaneously.

Underwater logging is the process of logging trees from underwater forests. When artificial reservoirs and dams are built, large areas of forest are often inundated; although the trees die, the wood is often preserved. The trees can then be felled using special underwater machinery and floated up to the surface. One such machine is the sawfish harvester. There is an ongoing debate to determine whether or not underwater logging is a sustainable practice and if it is more environmentally sustainable than traditional logging.

Variable retention is a relatively new silvicultural system that retains forest structural elements for at least one rotation in order to preserve environmental values associated with structurally complex forests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heli-logging</span>

Heli-logging, or helicopter logging, is a method of logging that uses helicopters to remove cut trees from forests by lifting them on cables attached to a helicopter. Helicopter logging is often used in inaccessible areas of forests. Because the use of helicopters reduces the level of infrastructure required to log in a specific location, the method also helps to reduce the environmental impact of logging. It also can increase the productivity in these remote areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Even-aged timber management</span>

Even-aged timber management is a group of forest management practices employed to achieve a nearly coeval cohort group of forest trees. The practice of even-aged management is often pursued to minimize costs to loggers. In some cases, the practices of even aged timber management are frequently implicated in biodiversity loss and other ecological damage. Even-aged timber management can also be beneficial to restoring natural native species succession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Logging truck</span> Vehicle used for carrying logs

A logging truck or timber lorry is a large truck used to carry logs. Some have integrated flatbeds, some are discrete tractor units, and some are configured to spread a load between the tractor unit and a dollied trailer pulled behind it. Often more than one trailer is attached.

The wood industry or timber industry is the industry concerned with forestry, logging, timber trade, and the production of primary forest products and wood products and secondary products like wood pulp for the pulp and paper industry. Some of the largest producers are also among the biggest owners of forest. The wood industry has historically been and continues to be an important sector in many economies.

References

  1. 1 2 Society of American Foresters, 1998. Dictionary of Forestry. Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 Keifer, Matthew; Casanova, Vanessa; Garland, John; Smidt, Mathew; Struttmann, Tim (2019-04-03). "Foreword by the Editor-in-Chief and Guest Editors". Journal of Agromedicine. 24 (2): 119–120. doi:10.1080/1059924X.2019.1596697. ISSN   1059-924X. PMID   30890041. S2CID   150081506.
  3. ↑ 'Logging emits three times as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per acre as wildfire alone. Most of the tree parts unusable for lumber – the branches, tops, bark and sawdust from milling – are burned for energy, sending large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. In contrast, wildfire releases a surprisingly small amount of the carbon in trees, less than 2 percent. Logging in U.S. forests is now responsible for as much annual greenhouse gas emissions as burning coal.' Chad Hanson, Michael Dorsey, 'The Case Against Commercial Logging in Wildfire-Prone Forests,' New York Times 30 July 2022.
  4. ↑ Illegal Logging.Info
  5. ↑ Virginia Tech: Dealing with Timber Theft Archived 2008-10-17 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ msnbc.com – Guilty pleas in cedar tree theft September 23, 2008 [ dead link ]
  7. 1 2 Putz, Francis E.; Dykstra, Dennis P.; Heinrich, Rudolf (2000). "Why Poor Logging Practices Persist in the Tropics". Conservation Biology. 14 (4): 951–956. Bibcode:2000ConBi..14..951P. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.2000.99137.x. ISSN   0888-8892. JSTOR   2641994. S2CID   40156577.
  8. 1 2 "Environmental hazards from logging". The Encyclopedia of World Probems & Human Potential. 2020-10-04.
  9. ↑ Forest Matters: Just Say No to High Grading page 8 Archived September 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ "Triton Logging". Archived from the original on 2011-02-08. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  11. ↑ Weatherspoon, C. Phillip. "Fire-Silviculture Relationships in Sierra Forests" (PDF). Redding, California: United States Forest Service. pp. 1167–1176. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 26, 2006.
  12. ↑ "Lecture - Hank Johnston". Sierra Historic Sites Association. April 27, 1980. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  13. ↑ "Wanted An-Inventor!" Popular Mechanics Monthly, July 1930, pp. 66–70, see p. 67 middle photo
  14. ↑ "A look back at the history of the Valley's log flumes". ABC 30 (KFSN). Fresno, California. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Huge Logging Tractor Moves on Wheels 24 Feet High." Popular Science, June 1960, pp. 96–98.
  16. ↑ Helicopter logging or Heli-logging Archived 2009-06-04 at the Wayback Machine , Forestry.com
  17. ↑ Animal logging in the US South and its application in the developing countries, FAO
  18. ↑ "CDC – NORA Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Sector Council". www.cdc.gov. 2019-02-10. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  19. ↑ "NIOSH Logging Safety". United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Retrieved 2010-04-19.
  20. ↑ Weichelt, Bryan; Gorucu, Serap (2018-02-17). "Supplemental surveillance: a review of 2015 and 2016 agricultural injury data from news reports on AgInjuryNews.org". Injury Prevention. 25 (3): injuryprev–2017–042671. doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2017-042671. ISSN   1353-8047. PMID   29386372. S2CID   3371442.
  21. ↑ Rodriguez, Anabel; Casanova, Vanessa; Levin, Jeffrey L.; Porras, David Gimeno Ruiz de; Douphrate, David I. (2019-04-03). "Work-Related Musculoskeletal Symptoms among Loggers in the Ark-La-Tex Region". Journal of Agromedicine. 24 (2): 167–176. doi:10.1080/1059924X.2019.1567423. ISSN   1059-924X. PMC   7008449 . PMID   30624156.
  22. ↑ Love, Joseph. "Avoiding Widowmakers - Grit". www.grit.com. Retrieved 2024-02-27.
  23. ↑ BC Forest Safety Council
  24. ↑ "Forestry: Guide to Managing Risks of Timber Harvesting Operations". Trove. Retrieved 2023-04-20.

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