Potential of a Light Combined Harvester/Forwarder to Reduce Wildfire Risk in Mediterranean Forests: Comparison with Current Work System

In the last decades the impact of wildfires on forest ecosystem and human assets has steadily increased. Forest operations can help to reduce the spread rate and intensity of wildfires by limiting the biomass available for combustion. Fuel removal is mainly done with preventive silviculture works which, in the Mediterranean basin, typically feature a negative economic balance. The introduction of small-sized forest machines may enhance efficiency and safety of such operations. The study compares the performance of the common motor-manual work system with an innovative machine performing both harvesting and forwarding of biomass. The study took place in a post-fire regenerated Pinus halepensis Mill. area with high fuel accumulation. Three plots were selected to represent the main development stages of this type of forest, respectively with a density of about 1700, 5000 and 9600 trees·ha−1. The machine showed a clear advantage over the manual system with the lower and intermediate trees density, where the capacity to valorize the biomass reduced the overall balance per hectare respectively to 19% and 50% of the alternative. This allows to cover the whole operation with the local public subsidy, unlike the manual system. With the higher density, the overall balance is unfavorable for both work systems and different solutions should be tested.