Residue recovery and site preparation in a single operation in regeneration areas

The integration of logging residue extraction, along with the establishment of a new stand and soil preparation is a new idea. A dual-purpose machine has been developed in Finland. It can be used as both a scarifier and a slash forwarder without the need for time-consuming conversion work. According to research results, the machine has proved to be rather competitive. In average conditions, the integration decreases the cost of scarification and residue recovery by about 10%, when compared to separate operations with two machines. Slash forwarder-scarifier is ideally suited for use in small regeneration areas, where the costs of moving two separate machines between sites would constitute a large share of the total costs. By the slash forwarder-scarifier operators exposure to the whole body vibration during the work decreases due to slower driving speed, the machine's greater weight and the position of scarifying plates in the middle of the machine body.