And our silviculturist said we cannot use cable logging to thin with. BS looking at what your pics show it is being done. I think there is more to it than he is letting on economics wise. plus we cannot cut our stands below 60% canopy closure which makes it tough to cut enough out to make the logging system economical. We usually cut between 3-5K / acre with our tractor sales. is that doug fir you guys are working in.
I've heard that before. Thinning is all we do and we do skyline in quite a bit.
We also have done the "impossible" downhill yarding in thinnings. Yes, it is slow, but the rigging guys have improved a lot as we've had more and more.
One crew even downhilled using an intermediate support. It is getting so there isn't any more damage on a downhill yarded unit as there is on an uphill setting--if the crew is good. That includes the fallers. A few settings were messed up by bad fallers.
Skyline thinnings can turn out beautifully. It takes a year for all the brush to hide the stumps here, and then most people don't even realize it was logged.
I can see the corridors, but that's just me.
I've got a lot of pictures and some bad videos of yarders and thinnings on this forum.
This unit was in a bit of doug fir, but the majority was hemlock and silver fir.
Back in da old days, it was considered uneconomical to go into anything under 10 mbf per acre. Now we are going in the range you mentioned, and in doug-fir. We should be cutting heavier in places, but can't.
For some reason, and I can't get them out to see active logging operations, many planners seem to think that cable logging is harder on the ground than skidder logging. Go figure?
Yarders are my favorite method. I like the whistles.
This picture shows where they did have problems and banged up some trees.
The hill wasn't shaped quite right and there was no lift in this part. Note how low the carriage is.
