Special Report: LSJ looks at rainforest loggers

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**Special Report: LSJ looks at rainforest loggers**

Articles and photos by Jim Stirling
Copyright 1996 Contact publisher for permission to use

Sidebar stories:

For forestry people in BC's remote Queen Charlotte Islands, logging isn't just a job, it is a way of life.

In the theatre of timber harvesting practices, unlikely players can sometimes demonstrate talents that suit the times and steal the show. Not all of the trees in the forests of the Queen Charlotte Islands are west coast giants - far from it. And that's one reason why Monte Hallberg, when peering through the tree-top mists and watching the Keto 1000 harvester bunch processed wood, he can see great potential.

Hallberg is general foreman for MacMillan Bloedel Limited's Queen Charlotte Division, based in Juskatla, BC near the northern end of Graham Island. The Queen Charlottes are a windswept archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, situated between 50 and 130 kilometres off the northern BC coast.

Hallberg is one of the key guys overseeing the company's operational side, which encompasses the hand falling, grapple yarding, hoe chucking and loading operations and, most recently, the Keto single-grip harvester. Road construction and dry land sort operations also fall within Hallberg's bailiwick.

MB's crews harvest about 550,000 cubic metres with three full-phase contractors in four locations responsible for the balance of the 1.1 million AAC in Block 6 of TFL 39. Block 6 is the Queen Charlottes Division with operations on Graham Island and the northern end of Moresby Island. TFL 39 includes part of northern Vancouver Island and the central mainland coast.

Magnificent timber up to 2.4 metres through the butt are part of the company's cedar-hemlock-spruce and cypress mix. "But broadly speaking, when you look at our whole wood box, some 65 per cent is under 76 centimetres at the stump. It was my thinking that a processor could be used even though they've not been pushed on the coast because of the size of timber," points out Hallberg. "On our operations, we can fall about 60,000 cubic metres per year with this type of equipment."

The Keto 1000 was chosen because it was the largest available on the market and its performance in other applications checked out, reports Hallberg. He travelled to the US with bull bucker Greg Matthews to investigate harvesters.

The 1000 is the largest of five Keto models manufactured by Kone-Ketonen Ltd., of Kristiinankaupunki, Finland. Hakmet of Dorion, Quebec is the Canadian dealer and Forest Harvesting Equipment of New Westminster the BC Keto representative.

The 1000 and its 96.5-cm chain saw bar can easily fall and process trees in the 76-cm butt range. The 2350-kg head was matched with a new Hitachi EX 300 LL tracked log loader, a machine with hydraulic compatability to the head. The combination was being tested in a variety of applications on a six-month trial basis. Hallberg notes the EX 300 can double as a log loader when needed.

He says in the smaller wood catergories, the cut-to-length harvester can out-produce hand fallers. But the ability to fall and bunch wood also results in better yarding productivity. The Keto's four-track feed system with the pulling power to operate at a maximum speed of 3.3 m/sec. creates clean stems. "We're really getting a better product out of the bush," says Hallberg. That in turn means reduced site disturbance, fewer limbs loaded onto logging trucks, and less debris to be cut out at the dryland sorts.

The company's off-highway Hayes and Pacific HDX trucks average 90 cubic metres on hauls with a one-way average of 30 km. The company's largest dryland sort at Ferguson Bay has increased its total sort package to between 27 and 30 sorts from 12 to 14 three years ago. Log size averages have decreased 28 per cent in the last five years with a proportionate increase in the number of pieces. "There's been an impact on costs and production with more value-added sorts but that's also made a contribution to the bottom line," explains Rick George, dryland sort foreman. The harvester's processed stems contribute to a smaller debris pile. Wood is periodically transported by two self-propelled barges averaging 12,000 and 18,000 cubic metres respectively from the Islands to MB plants at Powell River and in the Lower Mainland of BC for processing.

Limbs and tops left in the bush by the harvester create a protective layer for other machines like hoe chuckers to walk in. The harvester has often worked in a team with a Hitachi EX 480 for hoe chucking. Hallberg describes that as one of the cheaper methods of yarding where ground conditions permit over distances up to 213 metres.

Logging sites on Graham Island are characterized by patches of wet ground and some soils are very sensitive. "One of the keys is the footprint on the machine," explains Hallberg. This has always been the case for MB but is emphasized with BC's new forest practices code standards of permissible site disturbance. The EX 300 was fitted with 71-cm pads and a conventional Hitachi undercarriage.

The Keto's inboard computer measuring system calculates piece lengths and diameters in metric or Imperial sizes and was producing processed wood down to a 10-cm top.

Blowdown is another perennial Island problem. "The Charlottes can experience catastrophic winds," confirms Hallberg. The Hitachi 300 and Keto 1000 combination has proved useful harvesting blowdowns that are dangerous and expensive for hand fallers. He says the machine's long reach - about 14 metres each side - allows a reduction in machine movements along with less potential for site disturbance while directionally falling and bunching.

MB has used the machines for harvesting road right-of-way and improved productivity in falling and bunching the smaller wood. "About 25 per cent of road building is getting rid of logs in the way," he notes. The machines can also process wood grapple yarded to a roadside windrow.

Fibre recovery is improved with the harvester compared with hand fallers. The processing head can get closer to the ground, producing lower stumps and recovering more of the prime butt diameters, continues Hallberg. He says even though company operators had never seen the Keto before, it was proving its worth with about an 80 per-cent availability and improving.

Productivity is a site-specific tabulation and MB's crews are continuing to pursue the learning curve with the Keto. But, says Hallberg, we expect to average up around 400 cubic metres a shift. That's the equivalent to about 3.5 hand fallers in terms of straight production. The Keto also leaves more non-merchantable stems than hand falling. Add in some of the other inherent advantages of yarding productivity, fibre recovery and site protection and the harvester's potential Hallberg alluded to assumes an ever-sharpening focus.

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