biomass.forestguild.org - 1024 North Carolina State University Mulcher Test, NC

North Carolina State University Mulcher Test

Jones County, NC
North Carolina State University
Submitted by Nate Wilson, Forest Guild

Project ID: 1024

1. Name - North Carolina State University Mulcher Test

This case study comes from a small experimental plot that North Carolina State University (NCSU) was using to test the Fecon FTX 440 for fire hazard reduction. The site was located on NCSU's 80,000-acre Hoffman forest. The tract in this case study was four acres that had been too wet to site prep and plant during the last plantation planting. The prescription called for understory removal from a loblolly and pond pine stand. The understory was a thicket of gallberry, bay, red maple and other species. The overstory had 60 to 80 trees per acre and a basal area of 40 to 60 square feet per acre, which remained unchanged after the treatment.

The productivity of the Fecon FTX 440 was closely tied to each particular stand. The machine productivity peaked at 7.2 tons per machine-hour in a plantation, but on this natural site the machine was only able to manage 5.7 tons per machine hour. This was due to the fact that in plantation stands the machine could make long straight rows. In natural stands, treatments were considerably slower and recovery rates were lower as a result of the aforementioned track problems. The Fecon left about 3 tons per acre of coarse woody material (CWM) on the site. This was because the harvest head was narrower than the tracks, so the machine ran over shrubs, making them difficult to get with the chipper during the second pass. One of the major constraints on this system was the modified corn hopper used for collecting the chips. Its center of gravity was high, and the narrow wheels made it fairly unstable on the organic soils of this site. One operator noted thatproductivity could be increased on the piedmont because the danger of tipover would be lessened. Based on this test site, the Fecon FTX 440 system was able to break even in areas where it could produce about 10 tons of chips per acre.

Links

Small-Diameter Success Stories III (see page 16)

	2	Land Ownership Private
	3	Location Jones County, North Carolina
	4	Forest Type Loblolly pine
	Context
	5	Is this project a part of a landscape plan? No
	6	In a Wildland Urban Interface (WUI)? No
	7	Acreage treated 4 ac
	8	Type of contract Not applicable
	9	Funding source North Carolina State University
	10	Collaborators and partners US Forest Service
	11	Project start date Mar. 2008
	12	Project completion date Mar. 2008
	Treatment Goals
	13
	14	Reduce fuel load
	15
	16
	17	Forest Stand Improvement
	Treatment Specifics
	18	Primary treatment objective Fuel load reduction, equipment testing
	19	How does biomass removal fit with other objectives? In the future, as a market for material
	20	Treatment description Understory removal from loblolly pond pine stand
	21	Description of contractors NCSU employees
	22	Travel distance for contractors
	23	Type of equipment used Fecon FTX 440
	24	Treatment of residual slash if any
	25	Treatment cost per acre Break even at 10 tons/acre
	26	Trucking costs Not applicable
	Utilization
	27	Products from project Dirty chips
	28	Price for products
	29	Date of Sale
	30	Did biomass markets exist previous to project?
	31	Type of utilization
	32	How well did the woody biomass match the utilization options?
	33	Distance to utilization
	Treatment guidelines, targets, limitations
	34	Diameter limit
	35	Basal area reduction
	36	Crown coverage
	37	Fuel loading
	38	Retention guidelines Removal of understory shrubs - no change in overstory
	39	Treatment of snags and downed logs
	40	Soil impacts
	41	Other ecological impacts monitored
	Pre Treatment
	42	Fuel load
	43	Stem density (stems/ac) 60-80
	44	Basal area (ft2/ac) 40-60
	45	Canopy closure (%) 20%
	46	Height to live crown base 24ft
	47	Snags and downed woody material Present
	48	Size class distribution 4-14"
	49	Tree species composition Upper pine/ lower gallberry red maple, bay
	50	Presence/absence of invasive species None noticed
	51	Soil and other ecological data Pocosin organic soils
	Post Treatment
	52	Fuel load
	53	Stem density (stems/ac) same as pre-data
	54	Basal area (ft2/ac) same as pre-data
	55	Canopy closure (%) same as pre-data
	56	Height to live crown base same as pre-data
	57	Snags and downed woody material 3 tons to the acre residual cwd
	58	Size class distribution same as pre-data
	59	Tree species composition
	60	Presence/absence of invasive species
	61	Soil and other ecological data

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