Whole Tree Chipping on Private Land

 

1. Name - Whole Tree Chipping on Private Land

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One of the loggers involved in this operation called it "shrub harvesting" because much of the harvested material was in the 1- to 2-inch range. This North Carolina piedmont site had a loblolly pine overstory and mixed hardwood understory. The stand density was reduced from about 400 pines per acre to between 250 and 300 pines per acre. The pine was between 4- to 10-inch DBH and the treatment focused on the smallest trees, leaving mainly 6- to 10-inch pine post harvest. The main goal on the site was to thin the loblolly pine; biomass removal provided additional income as well as a cost-effective way to leave the site clean.

 

Hunter Boone Logging used an array of equipment to thin the site, including a three-wheeled feller buncher, a four-wheeled feller buncher, four grapple skidders, two loaders, a stroke delimber, and a Treelan whole tree chipper. The site was a combination clearcutting and thinning; had the operation only been thinning, less equipment would have been needed on site. The contractor used a three-wheeled feller buncher with a high level of maneuverability for the thinning. There was almost no residual damage to the stand, and almost no exposed soil. The feller buncher was able to harvest and hold multiple stems at one time, so it lay all the understory in a bundle that was easily grabbed by the skidder. This ability to bundle the slash appeared to be the key to the productivity of the operation. Because the majority of material removed was very small, it was easy for the feller buncher to lay the material directly into the skid lane for easy access by the skidder.

In some areas of the sale, the contracter harvested whole trees for both pine and hardwood, and the delimber allowed for the consolidation of all the tops into orderly piles where the skidder could grab them. Because the tops were not being dispersed in the field, they were easily transported to the chipper. The tops were also chipped, but because they were removed at the loader there was a bottleneck: the tops would pile up until they were moved to the chipper.

The operation produced sawlogs, hardwood veneer, pine and hardwood pulp ($25 to $26 per ton), chip-n-saw ($31 per ton), and chips for hog fuel ($19.50 per ton). The chips had to be trucked over 100 miles to be used as hog fuel, at a cost of $3.40 per loaded mile. This operation left little coarse woody material on site after harvest, with an estimated 1 ton per acre or less for most areas. However, there was more at some locations where it was dropped by the skidder.