Product strategy for the thinning of Norway spruce plantations

Abstract

The study compares the productive and economic performance of two product strategies, suitable for the thinning of Norway spruce plantations in the Alps. In the first case, all the harvest was chipped, with the intent of reducing harvesting cost through the processing of undelimbed tree sections, thus avoiding the time-consuming delimbing operation. In the second test, trees were processed mechanically with a harvester, and converted into quality biomass (delimbed logs) and traditional roundwood assortments (small sawlogs and pulpwood bolts). This second option results in slightly higher harvesting costs, but is less sensitive to increases in extraction and transport distances, and maximizes value recovery: preference to either option depends on the price differences between the different products, which is analyzed in the study