Our com­mon goal is to pre­serve forests for future gene­ra­tions. This is why we need to take care of them sus­tai­nably and res­pon­sibly. Appropriate forest mana­ge­ment ensu­res that forests remain pro­duc­tive throug­hout their cycle.

THIN­NING IMPRO­VES THE QUA­LITY OF TREES

The pro­fes­sion of a forest mac­hine ope­ra­tor is both res­pon­sible and deman­ding. Ope­ra­tors must be skil­led in tree species, mac­hine ope­ra­tion and tech­no­logy, as well as work plan­ning. They must also have know­ledge of the Forest Act, the Nature Con­ser­va­tion Act and other cri­te­ria pre­sen­ted by forest cer­ti­fica­tions, all of which guide har­ves­ting acti­vi­ties. Thin­ning plays a sig­ni­ficant role in forest pro­duc­ti­vity. This is why forest mac­hine ope­ra­tors need to know what trees to leave stan­ding and what to remove. Tech­no­lo­gies are being deve­lo­ped to help ope­ra­tors make these selec­tions and deci­sions. Last autumn, we pre­sen­ted the Thin­ning Den­sity Assis­tant, a tech­no­lo­gical concept which is not yet com­mercially avai­lable, but is being stu­died and tes­ted acti­vely.

TECH­NO­LOGY IDEN­TI­FIES TREES AND GENE­RA­TES A TREE MAP

The concept uses the lidar tech­no­logy to iden­tify trees around the mac­hine and gene­rate a tree map of the log­ging site. The tech­no­logy draws an image of the exact loca­tion of the mac­hine rela­tive to trees and the adjacent trail on a com­pu­ter screen.

“As the sys­tem does not select any stems for proces­sing, the forest mac­hine operator’s exper­tise will still be nee­ded in the future,” says Markku Savo­lai­nen from Ponsse.

With the tech­no­logy being deve­lo­ped, the num­ber of stan­ding trees can be mea­su­red for the first time in addi­tion to fel­led trees. The data col­lec­ted helps ope­ra­tors achieve the cor­rect and best pos­sible thin­ning den­sity for forest mana­ge­ment, which is also docu­men­ted.

“A stand-speci­fic stem den­sity – stems per hec­tare – is given for the sys­tem, which the sys­tem then starts to teach the ope­ra­tor. As the sys­tem ope­ra­tes in real time, no calcu­la­tions are made afterwards, and the ope­ra­tor sees the situa­tion as it is. The thin­ning den­sity can be chec­ked on the Opti screen during nor­mal ope­ra­tions,” says Savo­lai­nen.

When the ope­ra­tor dri­ves the mac­hine forward on the trail, the view will be upda­ted with new stems. If there is anot­her trail next to the mac­hine, the Thin­ning Den­sity Assis­tant shows its loca­tion and the exact dis­tance between the two trails. As a result, the sys­tem also gui­des the ope­ra­tor if the dis­tance between trails is too long or short.

Markku Savo­lai­nen, Pro­duct Mana­ger, mac­hine auto­ma­tion.