TY - JOUR T1 - Damages to the surface layer of soil during timber harvesting using the equipment aggregated with farm tractors A1 - Dariusz Kulak A1 - Janusz M. Sowa A1 - Arkadiusz StaƄczykiewicz A1 - Grzegorz Szewczyk JO - Acta Sci.Pol. Silv.VL - 11 IS - 2 SP - 15-25 Y1 - 2012 UR - https://www.forestry.actapol.net/volume/issue/2_2_2012.pdf SN - 1644-0722KW - harvesting damages, processor, cable winch, thinning AB - In the study, impact of three devices aggregated with farm tractors on forest soil was compared – FRANSGARD 6000 GS cable winch and two processors – NIAB 5-15 and HYPRO 450. The basic difference between the above mentioned machines consists in the fact that the cable winch skids debranched tree stems while processors skid the whole trees, including their tree-tops. The percentage of soil injured in late pine stand thinning reached, respectively: 1.2%, 2.2% and 5.5%. The analysis of significance of differences in Ug indicators characterising the damages induced has shown that only the indicator computed for HYPRO processor is significantly higher than the others. However, as the simulation performed has confirmed, appropriate thickening of skidding routes enables to achieve a comparable level of damages for all the machines examined. Taking into account the impact on forest soil, application of processors aggregated with farm tractors can be recommended for thinning stands.   ER -