Assessing productivity and cost of timber harvesting during longleaf pine ecosystem restoration

ABSTRACT Timber harvesting operations are increasingly used to restore sensitive habitats such as longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) ecosystems. However, logging companies are often functionally limited by operational costs and site-specific productivity potential. By employing a time study, this project quantified the cost and productivity of a two-person logging crew using conventional equipment in a South Carolina southern pine timber harvest used to restore a longleaf pine savanna ecosystem. Our study found that the feller-buncher, grapple skidder, and knuckle-boom loader produced, on average, 60.7, 23.6, and 45.2 tonnes per Productive Machine Hour (PMH), respectively. When the knuckle-boom loader was exclusively loading log trucks, productivity increased to 48.4 tonnes per PMH. Additionally, a machine rate analysis found that the total cost for each machine was 108.83 USD, 122.92 USD, and 121.25 USD per PMH, respectively, with a total per tonne cost of cutting, skidding, and loading amounting to 9.68 USD. Our findings indicate that restoration harvesting conducted in this manner under similar environmental conditions and price points may remain profitable for both landowners and logging companies. Moreover, the limitations of operating with a two-person crew resulted in minimal negative effects for both profitability and productivity, making it a viable option for similar restoration operations.

• Publication year

  2022

• Venue

  International Journal of Forest Engineering

• Publication date

  2022-12-28

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1080/14942119.2022.2157184
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Investigation of Feller-Buncher Performance Using Weibull Distribution

  2021cited by this paper
• Factors impacting logging costs: A case study in the Northeast, US

  2019cited by this paper
• Timber Harvesting Production, Costs, Innovation, and Capacity in the Southern Cone and the U.S. South

  2019influential reference
• Productivity and Cost of Processors in Whole-Tree Harvesting Systems in Southern Pine Stands

  2019influential reference
• MULTI-CAMERA SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM FOR TIME AND MOTION STUDIES OF TIMBER HARVESTING OPERATIONS

  2019cited by this paper
• Productivity and cost estimates for incorporating tracked processors into conventional loblolly pine harvesting regimes in the Southeastern United States

  2019cited by this paper
• The Evolution of Logging Businesses in Georgia 1987–2017 and South Carolina 2012–2017

  2018cited by this paper
• Productivity and Time Consumption of Timber Extraction with a Grapple Skidder in Selected Pine Stands

  2017cited by this paper
• Monitoring productivity and utilization of a feller-buncher using FPDat system

  2017influential reference
• Multi-camera surveillance systems for time and motion studies of timber harvesting equipment

  2017cited by this paper
• The accuracy of measurements in a time study of harvester operations

  2017cited by this paper
• Characteristics of Logging Businesses across Virginia’s Diverse Physiographic Regions

  2017cited by this paper
• Is it efficient to single-handedly run a multi-machine harvesting operation? A case study from the Northeast United States

  2016cited by this paper
• The role of work studies in forest engineering: status and perspectives

  2015cited by this paper
• Montana logging machine rates

  2015cited by this paper
• Forest Harvesting Productivity and Cost in Maine: New Tools and Processes

  2015cited by this paper
• Wood procurement and harvesting trends in North Carolina

  2015influential reference
• An Index for Logging Cost Changes across the US South

  2014influential reference
• Effects of overstory retention, herbicides, and fertilization on sub-canopy vegetation structure and functional group composition in loblolly pine forests restored to longleaf pine

  2014cited by this paper
• Comparison of timber skidding using two ground-based skidding systems: grapple skidding vs. cable skidding

  2013cited by this paper
• Applicability of International Harvesting Equipment Productivity Studies in Maine, USA: A Literature Review

  2013cited by this paper
• Productivity standards for whole-tree and cut-to-length harvesting systems in Maine

  2013cited by this paper
• A multi-stem feller-buncher cycle-time model for partial harvest of small-diameter wood stands

  2013cited by this paper
• Restoring a disappearing ecosystem: the longleaf pine savanna

  2013cited by this paper
• Montana Logging Costs: Resources for Continued Industry Viability

  2013cited by this paper
• Changes in Logging Firm Demographics and Logging Capacity in the US South

  2013cited by this paper
• Characteristic Mammals and Birds of Longleaf Pine Forests

  2011influential reference
• Utilization Rates and Cost Factors in Timber Harvesting Based on Long-term Machine Data

  2011cited by this paper
• Harvesting vineyard pruning residues for energy use

  2010cited by this paper
• Art of Managing Longleaf: A Personal History of the Stoddard-Neel Approach

  2010cited by this paper
• Returns to scale in the Eastern United States logging industry

  2010cited by this paper
• Cost and Productivity Impacts of Product Sorting on Conventional Ground-Based Timber Harvesting Operations

  2009cited by this paper
• A comparison analysis of logging cost between conventional and reduce impact logging practices

  2009cited by this paper
• Productivity and costs of an integrated mechanical forest fuel reduction operation in southwest Oregon

  2009influential reference
• Analyzing and Estimating Delays in Harvester Operations

  2008cited by this paper
• Productivity and cost of cut-to-length and whole-tree harvesting in a mixed-conifer stand

  2007cited by this paper
• Restoring the Ground Layer of Longleaf Pine Ecosystems

  2007influential reference
• Countering the Broadleaf Invasion: Financial and Carbon Consequences of Removing Hardwoods during Longleaf Pine Savanna Restoration

  2007cited by this paper
• Longleaf pine regeneration ecology and methods

  2007cited by this paper
• Production economics of harvesting small-diameter hardwood stands in central Appalachia

  2006cited by this paper
• Effects of site preparation treatments on early growth and survival of planted longleaf pine ( Pinus palustris Mill.) seedlings in North Carolina

  2006cited by this paper
• Restoration of Longleaf Pine Ecosystems

  2005cited by this paper
• History and restoration of the longleaf pine-grassland ecosystem: Implications for species at risk

  2005cited by this paper
• Determining Productivity of Mechanized Harvesting Machines

  2004cited by this paper
• Characteristics and Significance of a Harvester Operators’ Working Technique in Thinnings

  2004cited by this paper
• Burning and chopping for woodpeckers and wiregrass

  2004cited by this paper
• Production and cost analysis of a feller-buncher and grapple skidder in central Appalachian hardwood forests

  2004influential reference
• Ground skidding and harvested stand attributes in Appalachian hardwood stands in West Virginia

  2003cited by this paper
• Examination of stand structure on quail plantations in the Red Hills region of Georgia and Florida managed by the Stoddard–Neel system: an example for forest managers

  2002cited by this paper
• Productivity and Cost of Mechanized Whole-Tree Harvesting of Fast-Growing Eucalypt Stands

  2002influential reference
• Machine Rates for Selected Forest Harvesting Machines

  2002influential reference
• Calculating Utilization Rates for Rubber Tired Grapple Skidders in the Southern United States

  2001influential reference
• Microsoft Corporation

  2000cited by this paper
• Understory vegetation, resource availability, and litterfall responses to pine thinning and woody vegetation control in longleaf pine plantations

  1999cited by this paper
• Comparison of two thinning systems. Part 2. Productivity and costs

  1996influential reference
• Harvesting overmature aspen stands in Central Alberta

  1996influential reference
• Productivity and Costs of Three Harvesting Methods

  1994influential reference
• Tree Size and Species, Stand Volume, and Tract Size: Effects on Southern Harvesting Costs

  1989cited by this paper
• Trends in southern forest harvesting equipment and logging costs

  1988cited by this paper
• Stand and operating effects on feller-buncher productivity in second thinnings of southern pine

  1987cited by this paper
• Land use and forest resources in a changing environment : the urban/forest interface

  1984cited by this paper
• Feller/bunchers in plantations thinnings: factors affecting productivity.

  1984cited by this paper
• Drive-To-Tree, rubber-tired feller buncher production studies

  1983influential reference
• Silvicultural systems for the major forest types of the United States

  1983cited by this paper
• Regenerating Longleaf Pine Naturally

  1975cited by this paper
• The Longleaf Pine

  1907cited by this paper
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

  year unknowncited by this paper
• PRODUCTIVITY OF RUBBER-TIRED SKIDDERS IN SOUTHERN PINE FORESTS

  year unknowninfluential reference

• Minimal differences in estimated erosion and forestry best management practice implementation between conventional pulpwood and wood pellet feedstock harvests in the southeastern United States

  2026cites this paper
• Integrating High-Resolution Imagery, Deep Learning, and GIS to Estimate Soil Erosion Following Timber Harvesting

  2025cites this paper
• Production economics and carbon footprint of an integrated timber harvesting operation in the Northeastern US

  2024cites this paper
• Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) woodland vegetation response to three slash manipulation treatments as part of restoration efforts in a wiregrass-free ecosystem

  2024cites this paper
• Postharvest evaluations of soil erosion, ground cover, and best management practice implementation on integrated biomass and conventional clearcut harvest sites

  2024cites this paper
• Scheduling of forest harvesting operations on multiple cut blocks using multi-task machines

  2023cites this paper
• Spatial Multi-Criteria Decision Modeling for Pinus palustris Mill. (Longleaf Pine) Restoration in the South Carolina Sandhills Wiregrass Gap

  2023cites this paper