Impacts of Early Thinning of a Eucalyptus globulus Labill. Pulplog Plantation in Western Australia on Economic Profitability and Harvester Productivity

Acuña, Mauricio; Strandgard, Martin; Wiedemann, John; Mitchell, Rick

doi:10.3390/f8110415

Cited by 16 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The CTL system comprises one or more wheeled harvesters/processors that perform tree felling and stem processing tasks, followed by forwarders that extract the processed logs to the roadside. Based on previous studies [35], a single transport cost of 0.1 USD t-km −1 was used. Distances from stands to pulp mills were calculated with ArcGis 10.1 (ESRI, 2011); they ranged from 152 to 337 km (average of km) to F. Bentos pulp mill, and from 107 to 191 km (average of 157 km) to P. Toros pulp mill.…”

Section: Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Optimization Modeling to Assess the Effect of Timber and Carbon Pricing on Harvest Scheduling, Carbon Sequestration, and Net Present Value of Eucalyptus Plantations

Hirigoyen

Acuña

Rachid-Casnati

et al. 2021

Forests

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Quantifying the impact of carbon (C) and timber prices on harvest scheduling and economic returns is essential to define strategies for the sustainable management of short-rotation plantations so that they can provide timber products and contribute to C sequestration. In this paper, we present a mixed-integer linear programming model that optimizes harvest scheduling at the forest level, C sequestration, and Net Present Value (NPV) over a planning period of up to 15 years. The model included revenue from the sale of timber (pulplogs) and credits from the net C sequestered during the life of the stands. In addition, plantation establishment, management, harvesting, and transportation costs were included in the analysis. The study area comprised 88 Eucalyptus grandis W. Hill and Eucalyptus dunnii Maiden stands located in Uruguay, totaling a forest area of nearly 1,882 ha. The study investigated the impact of C and timber prices on NPV, harvest schedules, stands’ harvest age, timber flows to customers, and C sequestered per period. The maximum NPV among all the scenarios evaluated (USD 7.53 M) was calculated for a C price of 30 USD t−1, an interest rate of 6%, and a timber price of 75 USD m−3. This was USD 2.14 M higher than the scenario with the same parameters but that included only revenue from timber. C prices also impacted stands’ harvest age, C sequestration, and timber flows delivered to end customers. On average, in scenarios that included C prices, timber flows and C sequestration increased by 15.4 and 12.1%, respectively, when C price increased from 5 to 30 USD t−1. These results demonstrate that harvest scheduling, harvest age, and NPV are very sensitive to C and timber, and that the best economic returns are obtained when the stands are managed to maximize timber production and C sequestration.

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Section: Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Optimization Modeling to Assess the Effect of Timber and Carbon Pricing on Harvest Scheduling, Carbon Sequestration, and Net Present Value of Eucalyptus Plantations

Hirigoyen

Acuña

Rachid-Casnati

et al. 2021

Forests

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“…Thinning of plantations is commonly undertaken to reduce stand density and competition for limited but essential growing resources, and to accelerate diameter growth on the retained stems [5][6][7]. The aim of thinning is to grow large-size logs for solid wood as these provide a greater proportion of sawn timber recovery [8,9], are more stable during drying [10], are more efficiently converted to laminates for plywood or sliced veneer [11] and maximize financial returns [12][13][14][15]. For solid wood production, maximizing the size of the potential sawlog crop is often more important than maximizing total stand volume production [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinning Influences Wood Properties of Plantation-Grown Eucalyptus nitens at Three Sites in Tasmania

Gendvilas

Downes

Neyland

et al. 2021

Forests

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Thinning of forestry plantations is a common silviculture practice to increase growth rates and to produce larger dimension logs. The wood properties, basic density and stiffness, are key indicators of the suitability of timber for particular purposes and ultimately determine timber value. The impact of thinning operations on wood properties is, therefore, of considerable interest to forest growers and timber producers. To date, studies examining the impact of thinning on wood properties have produced variable results and understanding of the consistency of the effects of thinning treatments across various sites for important plantation species is limited. Two non-destructive assessment techniques, drilling resistance and acoustic wave velocity, were used to examine the impact of thinning on basic density and stiffness in 19–21-year-old plantation grown Eucalyptus nitens across three sites. Commercial thinning to 300 trees ha−1 decreased the stiffness of standing trees and this effect was consistent across the sites. Reduction in stiffness due to thinning ranged from 3.5% to 11.5%. There was no difference in wood properties between commercially and non-commercially thinned trees to 300 trees ha−1 and no difference in wood properties when thinned to 500 trees ha−1. Basic density was not affected by thinning. The site had significant effects on both basic density and stiffness, which were lowest at the highest precipitation and highest elevation site. The results indicate that wood properties are influenced both by silviculture and site environmental differences. This knowledge can be used for the better management of E. nitens resources for solid wood production.

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“…In pine stands, thinning is applied along the forest rotation period, mainly in ages before the growth and yield biomass stagnation (Del río et al 2017(Del río et al , rodrigues et al 2018. The quantity of thinned co-products is higher than the quantity of products for industrial processes, and therefore co-products require appropriate use to mitigate the timber harvesting costs (Han et al 2018); these costs are usually high due to the lower productivity and mobility of machines and the smaller volume of thinned trees (Acuna et al 2017, Nuutinen et al 2010, rodrigues et al 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy balance and CO2 emission in mechanized biomass harvesting in pine stands under thinning

Rodrigues

Lopes

Silva

et al. 2019

An. Acad. Bras. Ciênc.

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Impacts of Early Thinning of a Eucalyptus globulus Labill. Pulplog Plantation in Western Australia on Economic Profitability and Harvester Productivity

Cited by 16 publications

References 34 publications

Use of Optimization Modeling to Assess the Effect of Timber and Carbon Pricing on Harvest Scheduling, Carbon Sequestration, and Net Present Value of Eucalyptus Plantations

Use of Optimization Modeling to Assess the Effect of Timber and Carbon Pricing on Harvest Scheduling, Carbon Sequestration, and Net Present Value of Eucalyptus Plantations

Thinning Influences Wood Properties of Plantation-Grown Eucalyptus nitens at Three Sites in Tasmania

Energy balance and CO2 emission in mechanized biomass harvesting in pine stands under thinning

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