Types of logging systems and key forestry equipment

Types of logging systems and key forestry equipment

As part of the agriculture sector in the country, the forestry industry grows, harvests, transports, and converts timber into useful end products after a long production cycle. Logging is a part of forestry and is considered the beginning of the supply chain that provides multiple raw materials around the world. Logging involves cutting, processing, and moving trees from one location to another and can include skidding and loading trees onto trucks.

Types of logging systems
Logging has been an important industry for centuries. Owing to many innovations, the process of logging has become easier and more efficient. Forestry and logging companies follow one of these methods:

Clearcutting: The method is used by many large-scale logging companies to harvest timber. The system involves removing all the trees in a specific area. Most companies practice clearcutting because it is fast and cheap. But they need to have a regeneration strategy in place to achieve the best results.

Shelterwood: The shelterwood system is a logging technique in which the age and size of the trees are taken into consideration. Its main feature is that the loggers here take trees of the same age and size, leaving mature trees to support the growth of seed trees. Another highlight of this system is that it incorporates silviculture practice, helping maintain the forest’s species population and growth.

Selective cutting: The least destructive logging method is the selective cutting system. The main procedure here is that loggers only remove trees of a specific size, type, and quality. Companies that need wood from a particular tree species practice selective cutting. The main advantage of this method is that the felling doesn’t affect the growth of surrounding trees.

Key equipment
Forestry and logging tools help roll, move, lift, pivot, and place logs in sawmills and woodlots. All the tools here must be durable, affordable, and long-lasting and help in moving logs wherever they are needed. Here is a look at common tools one can find:

Cant hook: This tool is designed to lift, roll, move, and pivot heavy logs in the sawmill. A cant hook has extra teeth on the end of the handle to offer a better grip on the log.

Steel hookaroon: This is used to pull, pick, and move small logs, boards, and firewood easily. It has a hooked pointed tip at the end of its handle that helps move material around the sawmill.

Long arches: Long arches are used to move logs of all sizes with minimal impact on the land. These are used by sawmill owners, arborists, and forest land owners.

Log tongs: These tongs are used to move firewood and small-diameter logs.

One may require bigger tools for felling and moving heavy trees. Here is common forestry and logging equipment one should have:

Delimber: As the name suggests, this tool is used to remove all the branches so that the tree can be transported. Pull-through delimbers can be either standalone or trailer-mounted machines. Flail delimbers come with rotating drums and chains.

Feller buncher: This self-propelled machine comes with a single cutting head. It functions only as a holding, cutting, and ground placement device.

Stump grinder: This equipment helps remove tree stumps with a rotating cutting disk. The grinders vary greatly in size and can be as small as a lawn mower or as large as a truck.

Mulcher: The mulchers used in forestry and logging operations are equipped with either a tooth rotor system or a swinging hammer.

Yarder: A yarder uses a system of cables to pull or fly logs. It consists of drums, an engine, and a spar. It comes in a variety of configurations.

The forests in the country have been used for a wide variety of uses from the pre-Columbian era. Even today, the woodlands offer employment and other benefits to people in nearby areas. A forestry logging company buys and leases log-harvesting equipment and vehicles and uses them to cut trees, offering jobs in the process and initiating the supply chain of timber. These sawlogs are later shifted to pulp and sawmills. Forestry and logging services are responsible for supplying timber to those who can use the logs to manufacture a variety of final products for the end consumer. Logging is a hugely lucrative business, and so many people look for forestry logging jobs in the country. The industry might see a shift in employment rate a few years from now due to increased global competition, technological advancements, and expanded regulation, but as of now, it is an industry worth considering.

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