Productivity and Costs of Two Beetle-Kill Salvage Harvesting Methods in Northern Colorado

Hee Han; Woodam Chung; Ji She; Nathaniel Anderson; Lucas Wells

doi:10.3390/f9090572

journal article Open Access Sep 15, 2018

Productivity and Costs of Two Beetle-Kill Salvage Harvesting Methods in Northern Colorado

Hee Han

Woodam Chung

Ji She Nathaniel Anderson Lucas Wells

Forests Vol. 9 No. 9 pp. 572 · MDPI AG

View at Publisher Save 10.3390/f9090572

Abstract

Two ground-based timber harvesting methods have been commonly used for beetle-kill salvage treatments after a bark beetle epidemic in northern Colorado. A “lop and scatter” method uses a mobilized stroke delimber to delimb and buck trees at the stump, leaving tree tops and limbs on the forest floor, while a whole-tree harvesting method brings the entire tree to the landing where it is delimbed and bucked, and thus produces logging residue piles at the landing as a byproduct. We conducted a detailed comparative time study of the two harvesting methods to develop productivity and cost models and compared the performance of the two methods under various site conditions. We applied the productivity and cost models to lodgepole pine forest stands totaling 3400 hectares of the Colorado State Forest State Park to estimate salvage harvesting costs for each forest stand and identify the least costly harvesting options. The results show that the estimated stump-to-truck timber production costs were $30.00 per oven dry ton (odt) for lop and scatter and $23.88 odt−1 for the whole-tree method in our study harvest unit. At the forest level, the estimated average stump-to-truck costs were $54.67 odt−1 and $56.95 odt−1 for lop and scatter and whole-tree harvesting, respectively. Skidding distance and downed trees affect the harvesting costs of both methods, but their influence appears to be more significant on the whole-tree method.

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References

Details

Published: Sep 15, 2018
Vol/Issue: 9(9)
Pages: 572
License: View

Authors

H

Hee Han

Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA; Division of Forest Industry Research, National Institute of Forest Science, Seoul 02455, Korea

W

Woodam Chung

Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA

J

Ji She

Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA

N

Nathaniel Anderson

Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Missoula, MT 59807, USA

L

Lucas Wells

Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA

Funding

National Institute of Food and Agriculture Award: 2013-68005-21298

Cite This Article

Hee Han, Woodam Chung, Ji She, et al. (2018). Productivity and Costs of Two Beetle-Kill Salvage Harvesting Methods in Northern Colorado. Forests, 9(9), 572. https://doi.org/10.3390/f9090572

Productivity and Costs of Two Beetle-Kill Salvage Harvesting Methods in Northern Colorado

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