Work productivity evaluation of different harvesting systems in oak coppice stands

Turkey oak is one of the most common wooden species in Central and Southern Italy. Turkey oak coppices are mostly utilized for firewood production, since the characteristics of wood are not suitable for timber production. In the last years, the increasing labor costs are making more and more difficult to utilize turkey oak coppices. The solution can be identified by increasing work productivity in such stands, making harvesting costs decrease. The aim of the present work was to evaluate some different harvesting systems in turkey oak coppice utilization, in order to compare the effectiveness of various harvesting possibilities. In particular, the evaluation focused on the extraction through cable skidder, light gravity cable yarder and medium gravity cable yarder. Work productivity resulted relatively low in all the investigated extraction systems, due to the harsh topographic conditions. The highest productivity emerged by cable skidder, with extraction productivity of 0.42 t h-1, while the light gravity cable yarder showed 40% lower level and the medium gravity cable yarder showed 8% lower level.