Weathering winter a challenge for Tumut foresters
From the Spring 2007 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
Clearing snow off a forest road near
Tumut. Special planning is required
to ensure harvesting can continue in
winter conditions.
Photo Forests NSW
Winter brings rain, snow and frost to the south west slopes. While foresters are always grateful for rain, wet conditions can cause problems when it comes time to harvest plantation pine.
“Not all areas are capable of supporting harvesting operations in these conditions,” Forests NSW Tumut-based harvest planning forester, Roger Davies, said.
“Environmental safeguards are in place to stop operations from causing excessive soil rutting or bogging.
“Processing mills have limited ability to store logs in the yard, so it is critical to maintain supply. Some facilities cost up to half-a-billion dollars to build and cost a lot of money if they are sitting idle.
“Pulp mills typically run 365-days-a-year with minimal stops for maintenance.”
Forests NSW log supply coordinator, Damian Walsh, said during wet weather logs must be hauled on a gravelled surface.
“Thick snow is a reasonably rare occurrence and it is surprisingly good for forest harvesting machines to work on. However, when it starts to melt, it can make the soils and roads very soft and boggy,” he said.
To ensure mill supplies are maintained, Forests NSW identifies harvesting areas approximately two years ahead of the harvest and ensures all opportunities for wet weather harvesting are identified and used.
Typically this involves identifying areas where the logs can come to the roadside when the soils are wet and gravelling the road surface to make sure it can be used in wet conditions.
Roger said providing gravel roads was an expensive operation, but one critical to the processing industries and good environmental management.
“It requires a dedicated team of people to plan the operations to be in areas suitable for wet weather, then to build and maintain the roads needed to traverse the mountainous terrain in winter conditions,” he said.
Public Affairs & Media, Albury
