Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5552/crojfe.2023.1522
Operational and Environmental Comparison of Two Felling and Piling Alternatives for Whole Tree Harvesting in Quercus Coppices for Bioenergy Use
Eduardo Tolosana
orcid.org/0000-0003-2561-0342
; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid ETSI Montes, Forestal y del medio Natural Ingeniería y Gestión Forestal y Ambiental José Antonio Novais 10 E28005, Madrid SPAIN
Rubén Laina
; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid ETSI Montes, Forestal y del medio Natural Ingeniería y Gestión Forestal y Ambiental José Antonio Novais 10 E28005, Madrid SPAIN
Raffaele Spinelli
orcid.org/0000-0001-9545-1004
; CNR Istituto per la BioEconomia c/o Area di Ricerca di Firenze via Madonna del Piano, 10 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence ITALY
Giovanni Aminti
; CNR Istituto per la BioEconomia c/o Area di Ricerca di Firenze via Madonna del Piano, 10 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence ITALY
Ignacio López-Vicens
; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid ETSI Montes, Forestal y del medio Natural Ingeniería y Gestión Forestal y Ambiental José Antonio Novais 10 E28005, Madrid SPAIN
Abstract
Coppices are a major potential source of forest biomass in Spain, where they occupy around
4M ha. Quercus coppices are mostly neglected because of their high harvesting costs and the
small size of their products. This makes them very interesting to test and compare alternative
means for utilizing their resources in an optimized way. Hence, a comparative study of motormanual
and mechanized felling and bunching was conducted when thinning dense coppice
stands of the two most important oak species in Spain to obtain biomass for bioenergy use. In
particular, the study matched chainsaw felling and manual piling against the work of a driveto-
tree feller-buncher previously analyzed in the very same sites. Productivity functions for
motor-manual felling and piling were fitted for each species. The derived unit cost functions
show that the felling-bunching costs are lower for the motor-manual option in stands of both
species, particularly for the smaller tree sizes. Nevertheless, when the strongly reduced loading
times in forwarding associated to the mechanization are taken into account, the total harvesting
cost is often lower for the mechanized option. That is true for all tree sizes of Q. ilex, and
for trees larger than 13 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) for Q. pyrenaica. Residual stand
damage was low to moderate, but always significantly greater for the mechanized option
compared with the motormanual one. Soil damage was very low for both alternatives. The
stumps experimented significantly greater damages in the mechanized felling and bunching,
but further research is needed to determine if those damages have any impact on stump mortality,
sprouting capability and future plants vigor. The greater productivity and level of tree
damages found in Q. ilex when compared to Q. pyrenaica are likely due to the narrower and
lighter crown of the latter.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
290872
URI
Publication date:
13.1.2023.
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