Over the years, thought provoking questions and arguments have been asked about silviculture technology. Some of the questions have been:
• Why have silviculture practices lagged behind in technology development compared to harvesting?
• Why has soil preparation been mechanised whilst other activities such as planting have seen very little progress?
• What are the implications of mechanising various activities on tree survival, growth, uniformity and costs?
We may not have universal answers to these and other questions, however, as we closely observe, test and use various technologies - hints to some of these critical unknowns can be answered. Even though many silviculture activities are manually orientated, it somehow seems that when it came to soil preparation the silviculturists saw the light and adopted a mechanised approach – machines like sub-soilers, mounders, trenchers and pitting machines are a common feature in some forest sites. Advances in silviculture technology are important in forestry as they may lead to gains in efficiency and productivity. As forestry is globally competitive, it is important to pursue the right technologies that suit the required purpose to ensure sustainability and profitability. Forsilvitech aims to bridge the information gap which exists in the silviculture technology space. If you have interesting technologies you would like to showcase – whether small or big, please contact us from anywhere is the world, we will be glad to hear from you!
As someone once said “Forestry is not rocket science – it is more complex”
