An evaluation of harvesting costs in present and planned operations: case study—Waston District of Mazandaran Wood and Paper Industries

Abstract

Amongst all forest utilization phases, harvesting plays a key role as the beginning phase of the utilization cycle and has a significant effect on the following phases. In this research, in order to examine the reduction of costs with respect to present and planned operations, the starting time of the harvesting or cutting phase and work flow were recorded. The starting time of each phase of the entire operation was recorded as well. Before harvesting the marked tree, the appropriate felling direction was determined and the azimuth of the correct direction was taken. The results indicate that there was not a meaningful relationship between the differences in direction of a leaning tree compared with the felling direction. However, there was a significant relationship between the difference of the defined and felling direction and the difference in tree leaning and defined direction. The same trend was observed between tree leaning and felling directions and tree leaning and defined directions. On the other hand, there was no significant relationship between tree leaning and felling directions and the defined and tree felling directions. In addition, this research shows that with an increase in tree volume, the time for tree cutting rose. Furthermore, when the difference of tree leaning and felling direction decreased, the time to cut the tree declined. The regression equation is Y = 168.9-0.14 (the difference between tree leaning and felling direction) ? 0.7 (volume).