Ecological Technologies for Small-Diameter Tree Harvesting
Abstract
Production, costs, and merchantable chip recovery values were developed for a tree-length, flail/chip, and cut-to-length system. The systems were evaluated for three representative stands: early thinning, late thinning, and a clearcut. A sensitivity analysis was completed for the three systems over a range of tree diameters. Recovery was affected by stand type and by system. Tree-length wood had the least cost to the digester and cut-to-length wood had the highest cost. All systems were sensitive to tree diameter.