The process of timber harvesting is carried out in a number of steps, starting with the felling of the trees and finishing with trucking the logs to the mill. For this process, a number of different forest harvesting machines are typically combined to form a harvesting system. With careful timber harvesting plan, it is possible to select the best harvest system that will be effective and safe for any given site.
Process
The first step of timber harvesting is felling. Severing the tree from the stump is referred to as felling. Historically this was carried out with an axe or bow-saw. The development of the chainsaw increased the efficiency for a person to fell a tree (also called motor-manual felling), and this method still dominant felling method in steeper terrain. Pulling the tree from the forest area (or ‘stump’) to a landing is referred to as extraction. Once the tree is extracted to the landing, it must be processed before loading out onto the truck. This typically involves taking the branches off (declaiming), topping the tree, and then cutting the stem into logs (‘bucking’) according to a certain set of mill specifications. Once the trees have been processed into logs, a loader will help sort, stack and then load out onto logging trucks. Thus these are the steps to timber harvesting.
