Journal of Environmental Biology

Evaluation of consecutive skylines yarding and gravity skidding systems

in primary forest transportation on steep terrain

 

Selcuk Gumus* and? H. Hulusi Acar

Department of Forest Engineering,? Faculty of Forestry, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080, Trabzon, Turkey

(Received: March 04, 2009; Revised received: June 05, 2009; Accepted: September 18, 2009)

 

Abstract: This investigation evaluates two primary forest transportation systems,?? consecutive skyline yarding system integrated with two different types of skyline yarding systems and the gravity skidding system, considering technical, economical and environmental aspects. The results indicated that the productivity of consecutive skyline yarding system was 4.97 m³ hr^-1, while the productivity of the gravity skidding system was 0.74 m³ hr^-1. The unit costs of these primary transportation systems were found to be $5.98 and $51.28 m³, respectively. Besides, the gravity skidding system caused more damages on skidded logs, residual trees, and forest soil than that of consecutive skyline yarding system. It was also indicated that two different skyline yarding systems produced definite and different average yarding distances and technical capacities, which negatively affected the overall performance of the consecutive skyline yarding system. Therefore, different types of skyline yarding systems should not be integrated into the consecutive yarding systems.

Key words: Forest transportation, Skyline yarding, Gravity skidding, Steep terrain, Environmental damages, Productivity

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