Evaluation of operating cost management models for selection cutting in Scandinavian continuous cover forestry

doi:10.3832/ifor4204-016

Evaluation of operating cost management models for selection cutting in Scandinavian continuous cover forestry

Simone Bianchi⁽¹⁾ , Anssi Ahtikoski⁽²⁾, Timo Muhonen⁽³⁾, Eero Holmström⁽¹⁾, Sauli Valkonen⁽¹⁾, Yrjö Nuutinen⁽³⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 16, Issue 4, Pages 218-225 (2023)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor4204-016
Published: Aug 12, 2023 - Copyright © 2023 SISEF

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The importance of continuous cover forestry (CCF) is increasing, yet there is lack of data and understanding about many aspects of this management, including the operational costs. Our objectives were to retrieve available harvesting cost models from published studies on selection cutting in Norway-spruce-dominated stands in Scandinavian countries and to evaluate them against real case studies. First, we retrieved three recently published harvesting cost models which provided explicit cost functions. Models 1 and 2, based on rotation forestry (RF) data and adapted for CCF, had separate sub-models for cutting and hauling costs. Model 3 was based on CCF data and produced total harvesting costs, including the cutting and hauling costs combined. Second, we measured cutting costs for 29 harvesting operations on stands with different stages of CCF structure. We then compared the observations with the simulations of Models 1 and 2 cutting cost sub-models for those cases. Third, we expanded the dataset, including a further 34 harvesting operations in stands with more advanced CCF structures (without measured costs). We then simulated the total harvesting costs for all three models in this dataset to investigate their general behaviour. On average, Models 1 and 2 cutting cost sub-models had relatively good and consistent predictions compared with the observed values. However, they differed in total costs due to different estimates for the hauling cost sub-models. Model 3 had predictions comparable to Models 1 and 2 in the more advanced stages of CCF, but much higher in the less advanced. This study provides important data regarding cutting costs in CCF and demonstrates the feasibility of using existing harvesting cost models.

Keywords

Harvesting systems, Finland, Cutting costs, Norway spruce

Authors’ address

(1)

0000-0001-9544-7400

0000-0002-2879-4821
Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), Helsinki (Finland)

(2)

0000-0003-1658-3813
Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), Turku (Finland)

(3)

0000-0003-3360-4444
Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), Joensuu (Finland)

Corresponding author

Simone Bianchi
simone.bianchi@luke.fi

Citation

Bianchi S, Ahtikoski A, Muhonen T, Holmström E, Valkonen S, Nuutinen Y (2023). Evaluation of operating cost management models for selection cutting in Scandinavian continuous cover forestry. iForest 16: 218-225. - doi: 10.3832/ifor4204-016

Academic Editor

Rodolfo Picchio

Paper history

Received: Aug 11, 2022
Accepted: Apr 09, 2023

First online: Aug 12, 2023
Publication Date: Aug 31, 2023
Publication Time: 4.17 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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