Harvesting

Harvesting methods did not change very much until the 1950's. Axe and handsaw were still the major tools for felling trees. In the early 1950's the chainsaw replaced axe and saw. The chainsaw now allowed to increase the harvest of trees extensively, however, it was still mainly manual work. In the 1970's the first machine harvesters were produced and brought into action in felling trees. Today harvester machines conduct most of the fellings, in many cases operating 24 hours a day. For example in the year of 1995 the share of fellings using harvester machines was about 80%.

Hauling timber from the forest in the early days was mainly done by horse. These were the main means until the 1930's and 40's. In the following decades machines replaced the horse in hauling logs from the forest. At the very end of 1940's tractors appeared as a link between felling and long-distance transport. This was the beginning of "wood transport chain" from the logging site to the processing plant. Tractors were supplemented and later replaced by specially designed forest machinery such as, caterpillars and skidders. The main means of transporting logs to the processing site had been floating. In locations where there were no log-floating routes (rivers) available railroads were the common means of transport. However, as early as the 1930's, first wood cargoes were transported from the forest to processing site by truck. Rationalising of wood transport was becoming a major issue in the 1960's. With the use of harvesting machinery, skidders and loaders for hauling became very common. Trucks transported logs to the processing sites this creating an effective, fully mechanised "wood chain". This process has been and is still being refined until today. (European Forest Institute, 2001)