More Information
7.2 Harvest Roading
Authors: C HarveyPublication: NZIF Forestry Handbook, Volume Section 7 – Harvesting, pp 2, Dec 2023
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry
Abstract: Forest road networks enable access to New Zealand’s productive forest land, allowing forests to be planted, tended and eventually harvested and moved to market as merchantable product. The advent of modern trucks, with pneumatic tyres and diesel engines, has long since eliminated the need for animals and locomotives to access forests, allowing the expansion of forest estates into steep terrain whilst also improving the efficiency of timber harvesting and transportation. Although the larger exotic forest estates planted in the mid-20th century were on flatter terrain, many of the new exotic production forests planted in since the 1990’s are characterised by steep slopes, twisting roads and magnificent views over the landscape, with forest roads linking these remote spaces to public road networks. Approximately 1300 km of forest roads are constructed every year in New Zealand, servicing a total planted estate of 1.7 million hectares (and growing). The vast majority of forest roads are one-lane roads designed to service only a few harvest areas. Post-harvest, many roads lie almost unused by heavy vehicle traffic until the next harvest (~27 years for P.rad) and are therefore designed for optimum value, while remaining serviceable on the approximately 25 year rotations.