March 2019 | $7.20
ISSN 1176-0397
es x fi d a e h g n i l Fixed fel s e u s s i e g a k a bre
How to mechanise first thinnings
Clearer future for Tenon
Felling Focus 1
No breaks. No worries Story & photos: John Ellegard
Operator, Ron Roberts, gets ready to fell another tree with the TimberPro TL765D and KF800 fixed head feller-buncher.
B
BANNER BANNER BANNER 111
EST EST EST 1909 1909 1909
THE THE THE SUPPLIER SUPPLIER SUPPLIER TOTO NEW TO NEW NEW ZEALAND ZEALAND ZEALAND HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY INDUSTRY INDUSTRY INDUSTRY 14 NZ LOGGER | March 2019
BANNER BANNER BANNER WWW
| |0800 |0800 WWW.SHAWS.CO.NZ WWW.SHAWS.CO.NZ WWW.SHAWS.CO.NZ 0800 44 SHAWS 4 SHAWS SHAWS March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 15
A new era in th
breaking Felling Focus out 2
Thinning to waste with a machine means more hectares are covered in a fraction of the time it takes a manual crew to complete the job.
30 NZ LOGGER | March 2019
thinnings
Story & photos: John Ellegard
N
ICK TOMBLESON OF TOMBLESON Logging claims there was no big masterplan behind his development of a fully mechanised thin-to-waste operation to be used in young forests stocked with up to 1,000-plus trees. Instead, he says, it just evolved in response to a common problem. “We’d been doing fully mechanised logging for years and I could see the merit in a fully mechanised thin-to-waste operation, especially with the issue around finding talent and keeping guys safe. It was just a matter of trying different things to see which would work best,” Nick says. Today, Tombleson Logging has two mechanised thinning outfits working successfully in forests in Kaingaroa and Northland. These machines are tackling conditions that would test manual silviculture workers on foot and the results are quite astounding. For example, thinning 1,400 hectares per year with just two people. That’s around 15 hectares per person, per week. “We’ve worked it out that in normal conditions, one machine equals the production of 3.4 guys on foot,” Nick says. What made it possible was an Austrianbuilt fixed felling head called a Woodcracker. Woodcracker heads have been used successfully around the world for clearing land, but as far as Nick knew, no one had put them to the task of thinning. Designed especially for small diameter wood, Woodcracker was found to be ideal for felling young trees of first-thin age, ie around 8-to-10 years old. The Woodcracker is different to any felling head you’ll have seen working in a New Zealand production pine forest to date because it has shears to slice through the trunk, instead of a chainsaw or even a disc saw.
March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 31