Production costs and production rates for harvesting hardwood pulpwood in western Virginia were empirically studied. The harvesting operations of felling, bucking, skidding, loading and delay were individually and collectively analyzed. Forty operators were studied during the period July-September 1965. Average production time for all operators to process 1000 pounds of wood from the stump to a loaded transport device was 39.8 man-minutes, 8.0 power saw minutes, and 3.8 tractor minutes. Average cost for the total operation was $1.29 per 1000 pounds. Operators studied were stratified by amount of equipment used and productivity in truckloads per day. Variation within strata obscured most differences between strata. However, the data indicated that two load per day operators had a lower cost per 1000 pounds than the one load per day operators. Recommendations for improved harvesting efficiency center on improved organization of the harvesting processes, such as temporary storage, rather than on larger or different equipment. / M.S.

A model was developed to estimate the economic stock supply of primary wood products. Two hardwood products were recognized: logs and bolts. The supply model was used to evaluate the impacts of shifting primary product demands and increasing supply costs on delivered prices and quantities in southwest Virginia. Homogeneous supply response cells, identified from Forest Service forest survey data, were used to generate log and bolt supplies. Response cells define blocks of forest land with similar biologic, physiographic, and landowner characteristics. Yield equations estimate the volume of logs and bolts available. Harvesting and hauling costs depend on a response cell's physiographic characteristics. Stumpage owners set reservation price as a function of expected stumpage prices, future timber yields, and an alternative rate of return. Recovery cost per unit in a response cell equals the sum of harvesting and hauling costs and reservation price. The quantities of logs and bolts supplied are determined by comparing harvest revenues to recovery costs. If revenues are greater than or equal to costs in a particular response cell, then timber is harvested The demands for logs and bolts are derived from the demand for manufactured products. Log and bolt demand equations in the model were statistically estimated. For each time period, the model determines the delivered log and bolt prices which equate the quantities of logs and bolts supplied to the quantities demanded. The solution technique is iterative. The quantities demanded and supplied of logs and bolts are determined for the given delivered prices. If quantities supplied do not equal the quantities demanded, then delivered prices are adjusted, and the quantities are recalculated. Primary product supplies in southwest Virginia are price elastic because of extensive hardwood resources and relatively constant recovery costs. Expansions in primary product demands expected over the next 15 years should have little direct impact on delivered prices. Delivered prices, however, will be sensitive to production costs. These costs will rise if factor input prices, such as fuel prices, wage rates, or machinery costs, increase. / Ph. D.

The primary objective of this study was to assess the economic feasibility and profitability of the direct processing system for converting No.3 grade red oak logs into rough dimension parts. In the first part of this study, the cutting yields of green dimension parts and dollar value recovery from No.3 grade red oak logs by the direct processing system were estimated. A combination method of actual log sawing and simulated cutting was used to obtain the dimension yields. Two sawing patterns (live-sawing and five-part-sawing) and two cutting sequences (rip-first and crosscut-first) were tested for their effects on dimension yields, cutting lengths, and dollar value recovery. It was found that live-sawing resulted in significantly higher dimension yield than five-part-sawing. If followed by rip-first, live-sawing also resulted in higher dollar value recovery than five-part-sawing. Rip-first and crosscut-first has no significant differences in dimension yield, however, rip-first can recover more dollar value than crosscut-first if longer cuttings have higher value. The results of this study indicated that the combination of live-sawing and rip-first has the highest dimension yield and dollar value recovery if longer cuttings have higher value. In the second part of this study, the mill designs of the direct processing system for the various sawing patterns and cutting sequences were developed. The computer simulation/animation models for these designs were built using SIMAN IV/CINEMA. These models were used to predict the dynamic performances and production rates of the various mill designs. Based on simulation results, the direct processing system with one headrig saw can process from 17.8 to 20.5 MBF No.3 grade red oak logs and turn out 11 to 14.3 MBF Clear-two-face, 4/4 random width green dimension parts per shift. In the third part of this study, a financial analysis using discounted cash flow methods was conducted over a ten year planning horizon to determine the economic feasibility of the direct processing system that processes No.3 grade red oak logs directly into rough dimension parts. Under the assumptions of this study, measured by both Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR), all of the six designs evaluated are economically acceptable. With the highest NPV of $4,193,700 and the highest IRR of 29.6 percent, the design that uses live-sawing and rip-first with manual chop saws was found to be the most economically attractive selection. The profitability of the direct processing system, measured in ROS (Return on Sales), was estimated and compared with the reported profitability for the hardwood dimension and flooring industry. The results indicated that the direct processing system are more profitable than the conventional processing system for making dimension parts. The sensitivities of NPV and ROS to the changes in dimension part price, log price, labor cost, overhead cost, capital investment, weighting factor for part lengths, green cutting yield and drying and remanufacturing loss were analyzed. Dimension part price, green cutting yield and drying and remanufacturing loss were found to be the most important factors that affect the economic feasibility and profitability of the direct processing system. / Ph. D.

I investigated the effect of defoliation by the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar L. (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) on the radial growth of tree species that differ in their acceptability as hosts for gypsy moth larvae. Annual growth rings were measured from 1950 to 1992 on increment cores taken from three species: red oak (Quercus rubra L.), a preferred species, sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.), an acceptable species, and white ash (Fraxinus americana L.), an avoided species. The number of gypsy moth larvae on these same individual trees had already been recorded from 1979 to 1992. To remove the potentially-confounding effects of climate on radial growth, I developed regression models of growth on climate in a pre-gypsy moth period (1950 to 1975), and then used these models to predict growth in a post-gypsy moth period (1978 to 1992). The residuals from these growth models were then examined with respect to gypsy moth numbers. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 160-168).

Globally, illegal logging poses a significant threat. This results in environmental damage as well as lost profits for legitimate wood product producers and taxes for governments. A global value of $30 to $100 billion is estimated to be associated with illegal logging and processing. Field identification of wood species is fundamental to combating species fraud and misrepresentation in global wood trade. Using computer vision wood identification (CVWID) systems, wood can be identified without the need for time-consuming and costly offsite visual inspections by trained wood anatomists. While CVWID research has received significant attention, most studies have not considered the generalization capabilities of the models by testing them on a field sample, and only report overall accuracy without considering misclassifications. The aim of this dissertation is to advance the design and development of CVWID systems by addressing three objectives: 1) to develop functional, field-deployable CVWID models for Peruvian and North American hardwoods, 2) test the ability of CVWID to solve increasingly challenging problems (e.g., larger class sizes, lower anatomical diversity, and spatial heterogeneity in the context of porosity), and 3) to evaluate the generalization capabilities by testing models on independent specimens not included in training and analyzing misclassifications. This research features four main sections: 1) an introduction summarizing each chapter, 2) a chapter (Chapter 2) developing a 24-class model for Peruvian hardwoods and testing its generalization capabilities with independent specimens not used in training, 3) a chapter (Chapter 3) on the design and implementation of a continental scale 22-class model for North American diffuse-porous hardwoods using wood anatomy-driven model performance evaluation, and 3) a chapter (Chapter 4) on the development of a 17-class models for North American ring-porous hardwoods, in particular examining the model's effectiveness in dealing with the greater spatial heterogeneity of ring-porous hardwoods.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Coal mining is a significant industry in Appalachia. Herbaceous groundcovers are commonly planted to reduce soil erosion and protect water quality during mine reclamation, but many groundcovers may be too competitive to be compatible with trees. The objectives of this research were to investigate the performance of trees planted within different groundcovers and to measure how different groundcovers influence resource availability, specifically soil moisture and light Two studies were performed; one in a greenhouse and the other on 3 mine sites in east Tennessee where seedlings were planted and grown in competition with different groundcovers. Growth, biomass, leaf area, and foliar transpiration of tree seedlings, percent cover of groundcovers, percent volumetric soil moisture, and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) were measured. In the greenhouse, root-to-shoot ratios of northern red oak seedlings in the presence of competition from switchgrass and in bare treatments were found to be greater than in alfalfa and annual rye treatments. Specific leaf area of seedlings in the annual rye treatment was found to be lower than the other treatments. Seedlings in the bare and switchgrass treatments were found to have greater transpiration rates than in the annual rye and alfalfa treatments. On the mine sites, growth and transpiration of northern red oak, American chestnut, black cherry, and shagbark hickory seedlings did not differ among groundcover treatments. In both studies, percent soil moisture was found to be greatest in the bare and switchgrass treatments, and percent full PAR at 14 cm was found to be greatest in the bare treatment. In the greenhouse, percent full PAR was lowest in the switchgrass treatment and was lowest in the alfalfa treatment in the field. Many factors may explain differences in seedling growth and performance between the greenhouse study and the field study such as tremendous variability in substrates and percent groundcover in the field, micro-site influence, and other unknown factors. Results from this study suggest that of the groundcover species studied, switchgrass may be the most compatible with the hardwoods studied, but more research is warranted to definitively determine the competitive interactions between the tree and groundcover species studied.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2003. / Title from title page screen (viewed Oct. 6, 2003). Thesis advisor: Kim L. Jensen. Document formatted into pages (x, 99 p. : col. ill., col. maps). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-66).