For over a century, timber harvesting has shaped the economy, landscape, and politics of the Pacific Northwest. From animal logging in the 1800’s to today’s high production cable systems, timber harvesting methods have proven their ability to adapt to technological advances. Today’s society, however, requires more than improved safety and production. We must now look closely at the ecological and aesthetic impacts of harvesting. This requires an evolution of our entire approach to harvesting, rather than only an adaptation of our equipment. Today, we must consider alternatives to clearcutting, alternative road designs, and alternative harvest systems while increasing productivity and worker safety. In order to accomplish this, we must embrace long-term whole landscape planning of which transportation and harvest planning are a sub set.
The purpose of long-term harvest and transportation planning at the landscape level is to increase the overall efficiency of harvesting while reducing ecological, aesthetic, and political impacts. When coupled with a long-term Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), most of the potential conflicts between ecological impacts and economic interests can be identified and dealt with long before the conflict becomes a crisis. Of course, since we work within a fickle society, these plans must be flexible and proactive. Regulations rarely become less strict, so it is important to anticipate future restrictions and plan for them.
The basic harvest planning procedure (see Figure 9) begins with the strategic planning phase. This is based on management criteria, and is independent of topography. It covers such topics as harvest volumes, market/product evaluations, and social/political constraints (e.g. HCP).
The tactical planning phase, the focus of this report, follows the strategic planning phase. It begins with the identification of biological, physical, and technical constraints. After the constraints are identified, assessments are conducted. Sensitive areas are assessed for both their impact on harvesting and the impact of harvesting on the sensitive areas. The topography is assessed for road spacing and average yarding distances. After these assessments are completed we move on to the analysis portion of the plan. This begins with landing location and setting analysis. The landscape is broken down into sections that will later become harvest units. A road system is developed to provide a link between the landings and the mill. Ecological and environmental constraints are evaluated next. Following this is the harvest scheduling and transportation analysis that determines the most economical harvest plan from the options created in previous steps. Finally, the plan is verified in the field and the results are passed on to management for review.
This report is based on the harvest planning procedure described above. In addition to the aspects of this procedure, alternative yarding and leave tree strategies are also discussed in Chapter 13. These alternative analyses are intended to serve as a window into the future of timber harvest planning. In time, this alternative analysis will integrate itself into the flow of the harvest planning process (see Figure 1). For now, it stands alone as a separate analysis process, although we attempt to integrate these alternatives where possible within the constraints of this project.
Figure 1. Harvest Planning Procedure. With time, the alternative analysis branch will become integrated within the flow of the entire analysis process. Resource Requirements for Harvest Planning