Organised Felling at Ardgartan Forest
Photograph courtesy of Mike Aldridge, Inverness, who worked as a Training Forester for a number of years.
A view over a site around 1984 which has been strip felled on the contour with timber and logs held by stopper trees cut off at a high level. It is difficult to see the products but as this site is being extracted by Cablecrane and there is no organised stacking most of the small trees appear to be in the length with the odd log cut off.
Mike describes the process which appears to be a variation from the process on this site:
Contour Felling - used on steep ground for cablecrane extraction.
Again strips 20m wide but laid out along the contour. Looking uphill work progresses from right to left so that operator felling trees from left to right across the slope can work on the safe side of the tree.
Bench trees are selected close to the lower edge of the strip and felled uphill, a line of trees along the lower edge of the strip are initially left standing "stopper trees" used to prevent produce rolling down the slope. Felling starts at the bottom of the strip, felling across the slope using open sink cuts and strong hinge to retain the tree on the stump. Operator working on topside of tree snedding and marking crosscut points, once clean trees are cut free from stump, gravity will take pole to stopper trees where they can be crosscut and small produce stacked for extraction, or left as whole pole for roadside conversion. Work progresses across the slope with additional bench trees felled as required. Stopper trees may be held as supports for skyline setup or felled once they have served their purpose leaving high stumps to support any stacked produce. Bench trees are subsequently cut from the stump and exposed for extraction.
Mike recalls ‘ If memory serves me correctly this was a Standing Sale and extraction at distances up to 500m was done by an Igland Alp trailer and Alpcat carriage with multi chokering, partial conversion at stump with random logs to 16cm top diameter and poles to maximise extracted load. The produce was then hauled to the sawmill in length for end product conversion and milling.’
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action