Cut-to-Length Harvesting Options for the Integrated Harvesting of the European Industrial Poplar Plantations

Plantation forestry has a long history in Europe and still supports local industry, generating employment, improving environmental quality, mitigating climate change. As part of these plantations, medium-rotation poplars (5–8 years) provide good quality logs for fiber production, the branches tops can be converted into green energy. Finding cost-effective harvesting system this plantation is challenging due to small tree size need log which prevents whole-tree chipping. To verify economic benefit using mechanized cut-to-length (CTL) technology, four different CTL chains were tested western Slovakia. All consisted harvester forwarder. Each machine had skilled operator was timed while cutting processing (or forwarding) eight experimental sample plots. Sample plots randomly assigned each treatment, one covered an area between 0.08 0.10 ha (120–170 trees). Harvester productivity ranged from 2.2 4.2 bone-dry tons per scheduled hour (BDT SMH−1), cost EUR 11 22 BDT−1. Forwarding 2.0 4.5 BDT SMH−1 9 20 Total costs 26 36 Choosing smaller preferable size, caps regardless machine’s intrinsic potential. Furthermore, harvesters forwarders are lighter on ground, valuable asset many wet sites planted with poplar.