The need for brushing before the first thinning has increased during the last few years. This brushing involves taking away small trees and bushes making it able for the harvester operator to see better and choose the correct trees to be harvested. In today’s silviculture the brushing is often neglected which means that the undergrowth becomes dense and leads to less efficiency for harvesters and a rise in costs. A well brushed first thinning will make the harvesting costs low and time efficient. In brushing before the 1st thinning all stems below 9 cm d bh are traditionally taken down. This has a tendency to become stereotyped; i.e. brushes are also taken away in areas where stronger nature conservation should be applied, as in wetlands, edge zones, etc. The harvester operator then gets stuck in these zones which threaten the biodiversity. This study aims at examining two different types of brushing methods before the thinning, the traditional one and another (new) method where environmental and nature protection aspects were taken into account to a greater degree; i.e. where more stems and undergrowth have been left over and edge zones were not brushed. The study results show that the latter one is to prefer as the more cost efficient one. It also protects the harvester to drive out into the edge zones. This method is also beneficial for the wildlife. Most harvester operators were positive to a new brushing manual.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-56990 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Åsa, Andersson |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för skog och träteknik (SOT), 9203045621 |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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