The main purpose of this study is to investigate how to reduce the high, and every decade raising, pre-clearance cost. The pre-clearance is today carried out with a brush saw and paid per labour hour. All small trees not suitable for Pulpwood are removed to simplify the later work of the harvester. The study compares the economic results from thinning of four parcels each treated differently regarding harsh or light pre-clearance and extraction of only Pulpwood, or both Pulpwood and fuel wood. In this type of spruce stand the study indicates that a lighter pre-clearance, followed up with both Pulpwood and a fuel wood extraction, has a much better economy than the traditional method of hard pre-clearance and only Pulpwood extraction..

The aim of the study was to compare productivity in first thinning of birch stands, when either energy- or Pulpwood was harvested. The systems total profitability was also compared by including forwarding and chipping costs. A Gremo 950 HPVR harvester was used and the same driver was used under the entire study. During the Pulpwood harvest a Logmax 4000b harvester head was used and a feller buncher head made by Silvatec was used during the energy wood harvest. Six study unit pairs were located in a birch dominated stand outside Ängelholm in Skåne.

The purpose of this study is to compare the economic differences between withdraw of forest fuel and withdraw of Pulpwood in first thinning, to see which method gives the maximum profitability (income - cost). Another purpose is to investigate the economic impact of the thicket cleaning. The study compares four different methods: i) Pulpwood output with thicket cleaning, ii) Pulpwood output without thicket cleaning, iii) forest fuel output with thicket cleaning and iv) forest fuel output without thicket cleaning. The study was conducted in a 30-years old stand, dominated by spruce, outside Harg in Uppland. The method that generated the best economic net income was Pulpwood without thicket cleaning. It generated a positive net of 1,383 SEK per hectare. Forest fuel output without thicket cleaning also generated a positive net in 720 kronor per hectare.

The bioenergy market has been introduced relatively late in a perspective of the Swedish forestry. Nowadays branches and tops are used more frequently as bioenergy after harvesting. Therefore, it has developed a competitive situation between Pulpwood and bioenergy. This situation has even established some questions. Two examples of these are: ? At what top diameter should the final piece of Pulpwood be crosscut to get the best economically result? ? Should the top diameter, at the final piece of Pulpwood, be crosscut at a thicker or smaller diameter than what is done today? The purpose of this report is to answer these two questions when the harvesting is made motor manually in beech stands.

Stands where pre commercial thinning has been ignored or inadequate often tend to have high stem density and low average diameter when they reach heights of thinning. In such stands, it can often be expensive to do a conventional Pulpwood harvest as a first thinning. This study investigates the development of the stands and the economic outcome of forest fuel extraction, or a combined harvest as alternatives to the ordinary Pulpwood harvest. Simulations in Heureka StandWise were performed for two thin and dense stands, which were constructed by data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory. The simulations show that the extraction of forest fuel in first thinning at an early stage can provide higher net revenue compared to conventional Pulpwood harvest at the same time or later.

The market for biofuels from the forests have had a positive development and the job initiators for this master´s thesis wanted to examine the profitability of a method for harvesting forest fuel, which was unfamiliar to them. The method was the ?long tree tops-method?, here called the LT-method. The LT-method is characterised by the fact that timber is harvested as the only roundwood assortment while the rest of the stem, which in other cases would become Pulpwood, is harvested as forest fuel together with the logging residues. The method is based on the assumption that advantages in handling of the forest fuel assortment such as increased load weights for forest hauling and truck transportation, should compensate for the lower price for Pulpwood when sold as forest fuel. The aim of the study was to compare the profitability of the LT-method with the GROT-method (harvest of timber, Pulpwood and logging residues) and conventional logging without any harvest of forest fuel, and aslo to try to identify factors affecting the profitability of the different methods.

Holmen Skog AB is an important supplier of conifer Pulpwood to the Iggesund Paperboard mill. After logging and transport to the landing by a forwarder, the wood is loaded on trucks for further transport, often by using separate loaders. During this handling process considerable amounts of stone material is sometimes mixed into the Pulpwood and this causes problems for the industry. The aim of this study is to identify which part of the chain from forest to pulpmill, that contributes the most to this contamination. Sizes and total volumes of the contaminating stones were also investigated.

The efficiency of the harvesters work is more often reviewed, than the work of the forwarders. In a local Stora Enso office the differences between the harvesters reported volume of timber, and the actual volume delivered to the industry had been noticed. Therefore, the decision was made to do a review on the forwarders work. The review was conducted together with a worker from Vmf Qbera, who is working daily with wood measurement, in order to get a valid evaluation of the logs. Eight sites were included in the survey, and on each site 50 logs were marked. Approximately one third of the marked logs were Pulpwood, and the remaining logs marked were timber.

The aim of this study was to quantify the productivity and the costs of different harvesting systems (teams), containing harvesters equipped with accumulating harvester heads and forwarders, in first commercial thinnings were an integrated harvest of Pulpwood and energy wood were performed. In the beginning the plan was to study and measure 20 sites before and after harvest. Due to storms during the summer of 2010, complete data could only be obtained from 8 of these 20 sites. Seven of these sites were privately owned and one was owned by UPM, all of the sites had been pre-commercially thinned. The mean stem density before harvest was 2578 stems per ha and the mean stem volume was 0.074 m3solid over bark.On average 1518 stems/ha was harvested.

Profit in first commercial thinnings of today is hard to achieve. This is because of prevailing Pulpwood prices and because of high costs of logging and transport. To reduce these costs higher productivity is advocated. One way to increase the productivity is the use of multi-tree handling harvester heads. The aim of this study was to calculate logging and transport costs in first thinnings, where multi-tree handling has been used.

This thesis is made on behalf of SCA's Forestry Division and is a comparison of two bucking simulation tools: Aptan (manufactured by Skogforsk) and Best/upr (from Berget Systemdesign). The data is based on 32 stands from SCA's forests in Norrbotten and Västerbotten. The objective is to compare the simulations created by the tools with the harvested volumes from those stands. Three variables are needed for the bucking simulation; these are the diameter distribution (at breast height), the relationship function between diameter and height, and the taper coefficients. The volumes of five different assortments from the stands are compared.

A recommendation for stand treatment of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) is, in a scientific point of view, lacking when it comes to harvesting for biomass energy. Within the next decades it is expected that 280 000 hectares of lodgepole pine will have reached thinning age on the domains of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA). Due to this the interest has grown rapidly for studying the possibilities of harvesting biofuel assortments already in the first thinning. In this study the distribution of the biomass within lodgepole pine trees has been studied and taken into account for estimating the proportions of harvested assortments when using different methods of thinning. The methods studied were conventional biofuel-harvesting (with delimbed branches gathered separately from the round wood) and thinning with cutting of round wood and long tops (incl.

Since the turn of the millennium a sharp increase in the interest for bio energy has been observed. Important reasons for this growing interest can be due to the fact that fossil fuels are a finite resource. A net discharge of greenhouse gases occur when fossil fuels are burned. The discharge of greenhouse gases are considered to be the main reason to the greenhouse effect. Means of control to increase the use of bio energy has been introduced and, as intended, the use of bio energy has increased. As a result of the legal provisions the ability to pay for bio energy has increased, which the forest industry view as a problem.

The costs of logging and of transportation with truck are dominating the total cost of wood delivered at industry. To support the profitability for the members' forestry the processing and handling with the timber has to be as efficient as possible. Increased length of Pulpwood in thinning is one conduct that can result in higher productivity and/or lower costs. The study is scaled as a system analysis with the aim to exemplify the differences between working with 3- and 4-meter as standard length of Pulpwood, related to biological aspects, timber receipts, cost of logging and cost of transportation with truck. Important aspects are if the change is technically and biologically feasible and economically profitable.

This report concerns the for Sweden foreign tree species hybrid larch, hybrid aspen and poplar, and focuses on the area Kalmar and Mönsterås municipalities. The report shows that there are not only advantages with these species. The larch, the most common of the alien tree species has the greatest problems due to that its timber is difficult to sell in the area but also the Larch´s poor pulp quality and is more likely to be damaged by wildlife than the spruce is. Hybrid Aspen is much easier to sell and is used like regular aspen for match wood and textile pulp. Its disadvantage is the high cost for plants and to prevent damage from wildlife.