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Abstract
Forest managers and wood suppliers need a method for assessing the amount of biomass available on potential harvest sites when harvesting plans and decisions are being made. We evaluated the utility of using variable-top, total and merchantable tree green weight equations for predicting crown biomass on operational harvests in southern pine stands. Tracts with high proportions of pine had residual biomass predictions that slightly overestimated actual amounts harvested. High densities of small hardwood stems on a tract caused inventories to significantly underestimate biomass chip removals. Also, three operational grinding and chipping systems were evaluated for their potential production and cost. Hourly production ranged between 25 33 tons per scheduled machine hour and 72 78 tons per productive machine hour and did not differ significantly between the three systems. Delivered costs of material were also very similar for the three systems and ranged between $20.25 and $21.26 per green ton.