• Hennessey, Mary T.
  University of Maine Graduate School
  

Minimizing residual stand damage will help to ensure healthy, vigorous growing stock for future harvests. A Caterpillar swing-to-bunch feller-buncher was used to thin a sugar maple-beech-yellow birch stand in Maine. Residual stand damage was evaluated and compared to damage from a chainsaw and cable skidder operation in the same stand. Harvesting took place during July and August of 1988. Stems within the stand were marked to be cut to residual basal areas 01 40 ft2/acre and 60 ft2/acre to evaluate the effect of residual stand density on damage. A total of 1394 stems 0.5 in dbh and greater were evaluated in 32 fixed subplots following harvesting. On average, the proportion of stems wounded ranged from 22% lo 44% in the conventional operation and 20% to 31% in the mechanized operation. Although there was no statistically significant (p<0.05) difference in the proportion of stems wounded between the operations, the average proportion was less in the mechanized operation. Wounds were significantly (p<0.05) longer in the conventional operation (F = 3.09 ft) than in the mechanized operation (x = 1.99 ft), and wounds were located higher on the stems in the the mechanized operation (F = 2.19 ft) than in the conventional operation (x = 1.54 ft).