Fully Mechanized Harvesting in Aged Oak Coppice Stands

Coppice is a traditional forest management system used all over the world. It takes advantage of fast early growth and the vegetative reproduction of the respective trees. Coppice forests provide firewood and many other products and services, especially to rural communities. In Central Europe, regular periodic cutting and management of coppice forests was abandoned due to socioeconomic changes in recent decades, resulting in aged stands that have gradually lost their coppice characteristics. Today, coppice forests are recognized again not only for their growth potential but also for their benefits for biodiversity and nature conservation. Together with the rising demand for energy wood, this recognition could result in a renaissance of the traditional coppice management system. Several stands grow on relatively easily accessible terrain where fully mechanized systems (harvester, forwarder) could be used. However, there is no current information regarding the technical feasibility and productivity of modern harvester technology used in coppice forests. In this study, an HSM 405H 6WD harvester with an CTL 40HW processor head was investigated with time studies to determine technical feasibility and time consumption of harvesting aged oak coppice. The results show high productivity for harvesting hardwood. The multiple stem structure that is typical for coppice forests does not result in technical problems or significantly higher time consumption for the harvester, even though it is slightly more time-consuming to grab and fell multi-stem trees than a single tree. Compared with a forest worker with a chainsaw, the harvester left significantly (5 cm) higher stools.