This paper presents a multi-criteria selection of the best forest road network with the aim of achieving effective preventive and timely repressive protection against forest fires. The research was carried out in national park (NP) "Tara" at a site which is under constant threat of fire. Four variants of the forest road network were designed and analyzed against seven criteria, and the best variant was selected using entropy weight coefficients (EWC) method. The importance of these seven criteria was studied by the management of the NP "Tara." The greatest importance was given to the criteria relating to the cost of construction and maintenance of permanent and temporary roads (47% of the total value of all criteria). The EWC method did not select the variant based on the lowest costs of construction and maintenance as the best option, but the variant whose location was the most suitable for effective defense against forest fires.

The planning of a forest road network is preceded by a detailed analysis of the current qualitative and quantitative state of forest roads, and above all, the determination of their spatial layout. This paper presents a categorization and assessment of the state of the existing roads in the FMUs "Zeljin" and "Bukovik II" and defining of the parts of management units with insufficiently developed networks of forest roads. The identification of unopened and insufficiently opened parts of management units was performed on the basis of density of a forest road network by departments and using a fishnet with 500 x 500 m cell dimensions and buffer zones of different widths around forest roads. The absolute density of a forest road network in the FMU "Zeljin" is 18.62 m/ha and in the FMU "Bukovik II" 12.03 m/ha. After placing buffer zones around forest roads, it was found that in the FMU "Zeljin" over 56% of the area is covered by the zone ranging from 0 to 200 m, while in the FMU "Bukovik II" this zone covers 48% of the area. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR-31041]

This research was carried out in a selection stand of beech and fir, where logging was performed with chainsaws of different powers. Two chainsaws of 3.9 kW were used for work on one area, while on the other one the applied tools were a combination of a smaller and a larger saw (2.5 kW and 3.9 kW). After logging, the consumption of energy products (fuel (gasoline and motor oil mix ratio 50:1) and chainsaw oil) was measured for each individual chainsaw by the method of refueling. It was found that the power of the chainsaw, i.e., the combination of chainsaws of different powers, significantly influences the consumption of energy products in a beech–fir mixed stand. By using a combination of one larger and one smaller chainsaw instead of two larger chainsaws, savings of about 26% for fuel and 24% for oil were achieved. The prediction analysis found that by using two chainsaws (of lower and higher power) instead of two higher power chainsaws (currently common mode of work) in beech stands for an estimated volume of about 1 million m3 year−1, the savings could be about 54,000 L of fuel and about 19,000 L of oil. In monetary value, this is a saving of about EUR 120,000 year−1, i.e., of about 2,500,000 MJ year−1 of energy.

Smooth movement of vehicles on forest roads necessarily requires widening of the traveled way in small radius curves. This paper presents the results of a comparison of two methods for determining the required widening of a forest road traveled way in small radius curves: the traditional method based on formulas and the traces curve method, obtained by simulating the movement of vehicles. Both methods were applied in the preparation of the Main project of reconstruction of the forest road "Rasadnik-Pustinac" with a length of 5.285 km in the teaching base of the Faculty of Forestry "Majdanpečka domena". In the project which determined the traveled way widening by the traces curve method, the total area of the surfacing was by 2.79% smaller than the area of the surfacing in the project which determined the widening using a formula. The width of the traveled way directly affected the scale of earthworks. In the first case, the volume of the cut was by 4.17% lower than in the second one. The volume of the filling decreased by 7.05%, and the amount of material needed for making the surfacing decreased by 2.94%. A smaller volume of earthworks and material required for pavement construction in the preparation of the Main project of reconstruction, in which the size of widening was calculated by the traces curve method, influenced the estimated value of reconstruction is lower by 3.34% than the total cost of reconstruction obtained in the preparation of the Main project of the same forest road reconstruction that calculated the widening size using the traditional method.

This paper presents the results of an analysis of fuel consumption in the transport of technical roundwood of soft broadleaves from the felling site to a roadside landing using forwarders and tractor assemblies. The research was performed in various operating conditions in the area of FE "Banat" Pancevo. On the basis of the results of the analysis of variance, the data recorded in a variety of conditions were grouped. In addition, the dependence of fuel consumption on the average volume of tour was estimated. The results of the conducted analysis indicate that operating conditions significantly affect fuel consumption of the investigated vehicles. The elements of statistical analysis of the dependence of fuel consumption on the volume of load indicate that an increase in load causes increased fuel consumption per unit of production. Having in mind the results of the analysis of variance, unique norms of fuel consumption were adopted for practical purposes. The highest average consumption (1.21 L/m3) was achieved by a tractor assembly (Same Laser 130 tractor and Imako TP12 trailer with a Loglift 61F hydraulic crane), while significantly lower consumption was achieved by a John Deere 1210E forwarder (1.06 L/m3). In favourable operating conditions, consumption of the forwarder was about 0.9 L/m3.