Productivity and cost of manual felling with a chainsaw in Caspian forests

Abstract

A field production study was conducted for a manual harvesting system using a chainsaw in a Caspian hardwood forest site. A selective cut was performed on a 42-hectare tract with an average slope of 30 percent. Felling time per tree was most affected by diameter at breast height and by the distance among harvested trees. The gross and net production rate was 20.6 m³ and 26.1 m³ per hour/one person, respectively. The unit cost considering the gross and net production rate was 1.05 USD/m³ and 0.81 USD/m³, respectively. The significant variables included diameter at breast height (<I>D</I>) and distance among harvested trees (<I>L</I>) for the time expenditure model. This regression function is statistically significant at &alpha; = 0.01.