Logging, or commercial logging, involves cutting trees for sale as timber or pulp. The timber is used to build homes, furniture, etc and the pulp is used to make paper and paper products. In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard.
Logging is generally categorized into two categories: selective and clear-cutting.
Selective logging is selective because loggers choose only wood that is highly valued, such as mahogany.
Clear-cutting is not selective. Loggers are interested in all types of wood and therefore cut all of the trees down, thus clearing the forest, hence the name- clear-cutting.
Methods of Logging:
There are three popular methods of logging, namely tree-length logging, full-tree length logging and cutto-length logging.
In tree-length logging, trees are felled and its branches and crown removed on the spot. After this, the de-limbed, felled trees are transported in a truck from where they are taken to a sawmill.
Full-tree length logging is the most widely used process of tree logging. Here a tree is felled and transported to the roadside where all its branches and its crown are removed. This technique can e harmful for the area since it destroys all the nutrients and soil cover from the area.
Finally cut-to-length logging is used in areas densely popiulated with trees. It involves the felling and 'de-limbing' of the tree witht he help of a felling machine known as the harvester. These trees are then transported by a forwarder, another machine used to gather trees for transportation. It is a relatively new process and is used a lot in European countries. The method is also called the Short wood operation.
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