Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Ground damages due to the use of heavy machinery in the Swedish forestry is legislated in the Forestry Act where a minimum of demands for the forestry is set. To further strengthen the consideration to environmental aspects in the forestry, for example the importance of protecting certain soil types and waterways, FSC and PEFC certification are implemented.

In their strive to meet and exceed todays legislation and demands regarding ground damages in the forestry, Stora Enso Skog has developed a method called Right method. The method comes in different forms, tailored for each step in the chain from the planning of a clear cut or thinning to the actual logging. This report is based on a field study of twelve different logging sites (thinning) and the results of how well the work methods Right method planning and Right method thinning has been executed on these sites.

With the use of Stora Enso Skogs own model for follow up on Right Method each aspect of the method has been graded from 1 – 3 whereas 1 equals failed, 2 passed and 3 passed with great credit. Also the location, length and depth of every ground damage connected to the different aspects of the method (or lack thereof) has been logged using a handheld GPS. Every ground damage has been graded as severe or non-severe using a, by Swedish forest industry, unified policy about ground damages in forests. To connect the aspects of Right method to the ground damages, every damage has been categorised regarding what kind of solution would have avoided the ground damage. All the locations of the ground damages have as well been compared to a layer of GIS-information called ground moisture map to try and show that the use of this layer in both the planning and the logging phase can help avoid ground damages.

The results show that, at the time, Right method planning is still in its early stages of implementation where the majority of the aspects fails in the field study. Whereas Right method thinning, having a head start in implementation, shows better results. In this study 93 % of the ground damages, severe and non-severe, can be related to internal rather than external factors i. e. choices and decisions made by the forestry-planners and the machine-operators. A vast majority of the ground damages can be found inside, or in the imminent near of the ground moisture map, showing it is a good tool for planning and executing a logging.
Keywords: ground damage, work method, ground moisture map.