California Forestry
» Harvesting
Harvesting
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To be provided with the countless forest products that we utilize every day, someone has got to be in the woods cutting trees and transporting logs and chips to various manufacturing facilities.
Many people have a simplistic and negative image of logging. We visualize distant loggers running amok in the forest, cutting down trees with little regard for their effect on the environment. That unfortunate image is totally out of sync with reality.
Before any timber is cut in California, a state-licensed Registered Professional Forester must prepare a comprehensive Timber Harvest Plan (THP). The THP addresses a host of environmental issues such as the protection of forest watercourses, sensitive plants and wildlife species, and archaeological resources. The trees which will be cut are clearly identified in the plan, which contains detailed maps as well as provisions to ensure that the harvested area is immediately replanted with native tree seedlings to comply with mandatory forest stocking standards.
The Licensed Timber Operator's (LTO) operation is subject to periodic field inspections by forest practice officials working for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The LTO must fully comply with the provisions of a THP, or he can be cited, shut down, fined, prosecuted or lose his license to harvest timber in California.
Today's logging equipment and methods have little resemblance to those of even 20 years ago. The skillful timber faller using a chainsaw and axe still has a place in the woods, but technology continues to revolutionize his world.
Today's loggers are more efficient while leaving a lighter ecological footprint. Modern timber harvesting increasingly relies on highly specialized, computer-assisted equipment. The new machines require skilled operators. This helps ensure that timber harvesting is performed with a consistently high level of both efficiency and environmental compliance.
Machines like the feller-buncher (which carefully cuts and bunches whole trees in the woods) and the delimber/bucker (which takes just seconds to convert a harvested tree into sawlogs of precise lengths) have only arrived on the scene in recent years.
In areas of steep slopes where ground disturbance needs to be avoided, logs are commonly "flown" using lightweight, highly portable cable systems--and sometimes even helicopters.
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