Bluewater Business Solutions Ltd.

Bluewater estimations in log harvesting consider a range of factors in determining the best plan, including

• Environment
  • Slope (Adverse, Favourable, Side-Slope)
  • Trees (Retention %, Height, DBH, Species, Cull, etc)
  • Soil Conditions
  • Snow Depth
  • Surface Rocks
• Teams
  • Productivity Rates
  • Limits (Slope, Tree Diameter, etc)
  • Environmental Adjustment Factors (reductions in productivity associated with environmental conditions)
• Log Harvest Plan
  • Road Location
  • Block Boundary Location
  • Available Operating Days
  • Log Harvest Method
    • Roadside vs. Landing
    • Conventional vs. CTL vs. Cable vs. Heli
  • Zones
    • Standard
    • Riparian Management
    • Special Management
    • Block Boundary
    • Road Right of Way
  • Supplementary Phases
    
    • Mob - Demob
    • Employee Travel
    • Supervision
    • First Aid
    • Labour
    • Support Items
    • Secondary Tasks
  • Overheads
  • Contingencies

Each estimation performed by Bluewater shows the results when combining all of the above factors through a spatially explicit simulation system.  The end result is that each block plan is unique allowing for a comparison between alternate plans based on adjustments to any of the above factors.

Decking site allocations for an block plan, these allocations identify potential decking site bottlenecks as well as areas where skid-trails should be constructed or alternate road locations considered.

We designed four alternative harvest plans for a forest cutblock.  The potential number of block comparisons that can be performed is limitless, in this case we took a block that was conventionally skidded and created 3 alternative plans:

• Case 1 : Original Plan
• Case 2 : Reduced Block Boundary
• Case 3 : Alternative Road Location
• Case 4 : Alternative Road Location for Cable Yarding

Estimations were run for each plan with the same contingent of teams, available operating days, and supplementary tasks.  The software system chooses the most cost effective set of teams to use and in all cases these teams were not manually adjusted.  The following two tables describe the harvesting phase costs of each of the two blocks pictured above (BOB 022 is the block to the right, BOB 023 is the block to the left).

The costs determined here are a function of the environment and block layout where the work is being conducted as well as the productivity assumptions and pay rates included in the teams doing the work.  These numbers will undoubtedly be different block to block and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, nevertheless comparing different block layouts with the same team configuration clearly shows where cost saving measures can be gained or lost.  Some characteristics that show up in these comparisons:

• The effect of block layout and road placement can have a significant impact on harvesting rates (+/- $1/m³)

• The road layout in BOB 022 - Case 1 and BOB 023 Case 2 cause excessive loading on difficult decking sites, creating hauling bottlenecks

The total harvesting cost of a forest cutblock involves the interaction of a number of factors. In this case, the original plan delivered the best cost effectiveness for BOB 023 but the alternate road delivered the best cost effectiveness for BOB 022.  Combining the most efficient plans for each block would have yielded an overall harvest cost savings of $0.52/m³, or an overall cost savings of $24,000 with the same amount of delivered wood.

In these comparisons we have only looked at the cost of harvesting a cutblock with changed layouts.  In Bluewater a number of other characteristics can be changed to determine overall changes in cost, including:

• Adding a new type of equipment to the fleet to determine if it can harvest the block more efficiently
• Determining which piece of equipment should be allocated to each block
• Examining results to determine where skid trails should be built to remove long skids
• Examining results to determine whether or not landings should be constructed to improve loading and hauling
• Determine how much equipment to send to a block (1 loader or 2, etc)