Cut-to-length harvesting on a small woodlot in new England: A case study

This paper presents results from a case study of a cut-to-length (CTL) harvester with a forwarding system used on a small suburban woodlot. It was a cooperative effort between the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station; the Vermont Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation; and the Colchester School District, Colchester, Vermont, to demonstrate that using a CTL harvester with forwarding to thin small suburban woodlots, municipal parks, and environmentally sensitive areas is feasible. The average productivity of the harvester was about 49.88 m(3)/8-hour day, within the range that the operator had experienced on similar sites and on larger commercial operations. If we assign two product value levels of $12.95/m(3) and $17.88/m(3), the break-even tree size was 0.176 m(3) and 0.136 m(3), respectively. Other considerations in using the CTL system on small suburban woodlots, such as profitable tree size, ecosystem sustainability, and environmental concerns are discussed.