A portable protection system
Excerpt from the trade magazine Forst&Technik issue 05.2023
Soil protection during forestry machinery operations is usually achieved with brushwood mats, wide tires, and bogie tracks. However, sustainable forest management requires a rethink in light of climate change, as increasingly wetter winter weather is limiting the bearing capacity of forest soils.
An alternative technical soil protection option is a portable soil protection system made of highly stable yet flexible plastic. The Rhineland-Palatinate State Forestry Office is currently testing such a system under scientific supervision.
Under the pressure of economic constraints, increasing occupational safety requirements, and a growing shortage of skilled workers, the forestry industry is forced to mechanize timber harvesting. Meeting these demands requires highly productive machines integrated into efficient work processes.
This inevitably leads to the use of larger and heavier machinery in the forest. The consequences are higher mechanical soil loads, which penetrate deeper into the ground. Furthermore, climate change is expected to lead to milder and wetter winters with higher soil moisture, even leading to water saturation. This limits the soil's mechanical resilience.
This results in more intense and profound negative changes in ecologically and economically relevant soil properties and functions. Harmful compaction and even complete soil destruction can result. These changes are also increasingly viewed critically by forest visitors.
You can read the full report here:
View the May 2023 issue of Forestry & Technology as a PDF
Our special thanks go to all those involved and partners who contributed to this important, progressive topic with passion and innovative spirit and made it possible.
Our further thanks go to Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag GmbH as publisher of the magazine “Forst&Technik” which published this article in issue 5/23.
