Logging Mats and Logging Residue as Ground Protection during Forwarder Traffic along Till Hillslopes

Forest soils in Northern Europe are generally trafficked by forest machinery on several occasions during a rotation. This may create ruts (wheel tracks), which could increase sediment transport to nearby surface water, reduce recreational value, and affect tree growth. It is therefore important soil disturbance off-road transportation. In this study, rut depth was measured following forwarder traffic study plots located along four harvested till hillslopes Sweden with drier conditions uphill wet downhill. The treatments included driving 1) using no ground protection, 2) logging residue (on average, 38–50 kg m–2) 3) mats measuring 5×1×0.2 m. contain areas high content of boulders, stones, gravel as well significant silt. Six passes laden bogie tracks were performed. On the application removal necessitated additional passes. Rut two methods: difference elevation between interpolated original GNSS positioning (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), manually folding rule from an aluminium profile, placed across rut, bottom rut. methods gave similar results. Driving without protection upper part generated depths <0.2 Here, probably modified boulders stones conditions. lower hillslopes, mean ranged 0.21 0.34 With few exceptions, or prevented exposure mineral entire hillslope. Soil can thus be reduced acknowledging onsite variability considering need for when planning operations.