Felling

Felling is the process of cutting down individual trees,[1] an element of the task of logging. The person cutting the trees is a feller.[1]

This article is about felling trees. For other uses, see Felling (disambiguation).
Two fellers felling a tree on the Atherton Tableland, Queensland, Australia, 1890–1900. Image: State Library of Queensland

Methods

Hand felling

In hand felling, an axe, saw, or chainsaw is used to fell a tree, followed up by limbing and bucking in traditional applications. In the modern commercial logging industry, felling is typically followed by limbing and skidding.

Feller buncher
Main article: Feller buncher

A feller-buncher is a motorized vehicle with an attachment which rapidly cuts and gathers several trees in the process of felling them.

In cut-to-length logging a harvester performs the tasks of a feller-buncher additionally doing the delimbing and bucking of the trees as well. When harvesting wood from a felled tree, the recommended methods should be followed in order to get more wood recovery. The suggested trend is to make deeper cuts and smaller openness when performing undercuts. [2]

Types of Cut

Undercut

This is the guiding or aiming slot for the tree and is a V-shaped notch placed on the side of the tree in the direction of the falling. [3] There are two types of undercut:

  1. Standard Undercut
  2. Reverse Undercut

Back Cut

This cut is made on the opposite side of the tree and is helpful in the process of felling by releasing the stress on the back of the tree. [3]

Boom - Corridor Experiment

This was an experiment conducted regarding felling trees and the continuous felling of trees in boom-corridors which might lead to an increase in harvester productivity. An efficient way to do this would be to use felling heads which would increase efficiency and fall time. [4]

References
  1. "Feller" def. 2. and "Felling", def. 1. Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009
  2. Borz, Stelian Alexandru; Ignea, Gheorghe; Vasilescu, Maria Magdalena (2014-10-02). "Small Gains in Wood Recovery Rate when Disobeying the Recommended Motor-Manual Tree Felling Procedures: Another Reason to Use the Proper Technical Prescriptions". BioResources. 9 (4): 6938–6949. doi:10.15376/biores.9.4.6938-6949. ISSN 1930-2126.
  3. "Felling, Limbing and Bucking Trees". extension2.missouri.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  4. Bergström, Dan; Bergsten, Urban; Hörnlund, Thomas; Nordfjell, Tomas (July 2012). "Continuous felling of small diameter trees in boom-corridors with a prototype felling head". Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. 27 (5): 474–480. doi:10.1080/02827581.2012.663404. ISSN 0282-7581.



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