Timber Harvesting

Harvesting and other forest operations are tools for managing the forest landscape. Timber harvesting provides goods and income from the forest, and it can improve the condition of the residual forest. Historically, harvesting was primarily designed to remove merchantable timber from the forest. Logging in the late 19th and early 20th century left a legacy of railroad grades and skidtrails, as well as poorly stocked stands. The obvious negative impacts of historical logging activities have been a motivation to preserve, protect and restore Southern Appalachian forests.

Just as resource management practices have evolved, harvesting has evolved into a vegetation management tool. Current forest operations are designed to recover merchantable products with an over-riding constraint of maintaining a productive and healthy forest. Increasingly, treatments prescribed by managers involve selection cutting intended to produce desirable forest conditions. Harvesting systems, for example, may be used to alter species composition, promote natural regeneration, create seral habitat, or modify fuel loading. The requirements of the ecological prescription are just as important as the product outputs. This evolution of forest operations is changing the type of equipment used in the forest. New systems work at longer extraction distances, operate effectively on smaller diameter trees, and traverse the land more gently.

The Appalachians present unique challenges to cost-effective and ecologically-sensitive harvesting. Steep terrain and poor access increase extraction and transportation costs and require specially adapted equipment. Slopes also increase the need to minimize soil disturbance and implement effective Best Management Practices to avoid water quality impacts. Three basic types of harvesting systems are used today: ground-based, cable logging, and aerial systems.

History of Timber Harvesting: At the turn of the century, technological advances and the eastern United States need for lumber eliminated almost all southern Appalachian forests. Lumber companies turned to the southern Appalachians after exhausting timber supplies in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes.

• Basic Steps in Timber Harvesting: Harvesting timber is a complex process of interconnected activities. The purpose of the harvest is defined by the resource manager’s prescription for the stand. All of the harvesting functions have to be organized and operated to achieve the prescription while extracting the most value from the material that will be removed.