Seventeen Years of Forest Restoration with Small-Scale Technologies: Time and Fuel Consumption for Alternative Operations and Techniques

The study characterizes the types of forest interventions conducted on small-scale (< 2 ha) forests by 7 crews managed by the Forest Service in Verona, Italy, with the purpose of restoring degraded forests. Data were obtained from the operational records of these crews over 17 years across 340 worksites, and were used to determine operational performance, as well as medium-term trends in intervention types and efficiencies. In particular, crews were tasked with assisting forest owners with unprofitable interventions, which would have been otherwise neglected. Most such interventions consisted of the thinning (or salvage) of softwood plantations, and the conversion to high forests of abandoned beech and mixwood coppice stands. Over time, softwood thinning became prevalent, and coppice conversion was altogether discontinued after 2014. Extraction was only applied to softwoods, whereas hardwoods were left stacked in the forest for owners to collect, since locals prize the firewood obtained from broadleaves. Production time (e.g., felling, processing, stacking and extraction) represented 80% of the total recorded work time, the rest consisted mostly of worksite preparation and equipment maintenance. The time required for felling and processing varied from 15 to over 80 worker days ha(-1), depending on stand and operation types. Productivity ranged between 1 and 8 m(3) per worker day. The overall median values for fuel consumption (chainsaws only) were 0.4 l m(-3) or 38 l ha(-1).