Current issue: 58(5)
The purpose of this study was to explain whether it is possible to affect, in practical working site conditions, by means of logging waste on the strip road, the depth of the track which is formed in terrain transportation and the injuries of the growing stand. Five 20 m long investigation areas with logging waste and five similar areas without logging waste were arranged on one strip road at Teisko logging site in Southern Finland. The logging waste layer was mainly Norway spruce and 10–15 cm thick. A KL–836 B forwarder was used. The type of soil was loam.
The logging waste affected the depth of the track only by decreasing the wear of humus layer. Even decreasing effect of logging waste on the injuries in the growing stand was minor. At Kitee working site in Eastern Finland strip roads were studied. The type of soil was thick, rather mouldered peat. The thickness of logging waste was 3–4 times greater than in Teisko, mainly spruce. A Volvo Nalle SM 460 forwarder was used. The effect of the logging waste on the depth of the tracks was clearly to be noticed. On basis of the appearance of the tracks one could assume that the difference was due to different wear of the humus, and not so much due to the quantity of logging waste that improves the carrying capacity of terrain.
In some extent logging waste was also found to affect the amount and quality of tree injuries. In practical working conditions, the importance might be small, since in the experiments an unrealistically great amount of logging waste was used.
The PDF includes a summary in English.
Degree of decomposition of logging residue, and decay in stumps have been used in forest inventories to estimate the time of the felling. In this paper, a method was developed to use insects breeding in the logging residue to determine how long ago the felling took place. The method is based on the arrival and rate of development of the different species of bark beetles that breed in the logging residue.
The most suitable insect species to be used in the purpose of timing the age of logging residue were defined, and their occurrence in different tree species and fellings performed at different times of the year were described. The species can be easily identified by gallery systems characteristic to the species.
It is concluded that the method does not suit for broadleaved species, because there is no common insects suitable for this purpose. Also, the time of swarming of the insects depends on the weather conditions in the spring, which makes it difficult to give definite dateshe progress of the spring has to be taken into account when the occurrence of the insects is used in the determination of the time of the felling. In addition, local conditions, such as shading, affect drying of the branches, and can influence the occurrence of the insects. For Scots pine and Norway spruce the age of the logging residue can be determined precisely only at most two years back.