Purpose of Review

Lowering the impact of forest utilisation on the forest environment is a part of the improvement in sustainable forest management. As part of forest utilisation, timber harvesting can also cause environmental implications. The main impact of forest operations is on the soil, on regeneration and on the residual stand. The aim of the present review was to identify the state of the art in forest utilisation, identifying how and how much forest operations affect forest soil, regeneration and the remaining stand. Particular attention was paid to the level of impact and potential to limit this.

Recent Findings

There are a large number of publications tackling forest harvesting, but most of them do not give a comprehensive framework and they mainly focus on one or very few aspects of forest damage. In order to improve general knowledge of the impact of forest operations, it was proposed that the scope of recent findings should be examined and a compilation of the available results from different regions should be presented in one paper.

Summary

It was found that the least impactful machine-based forest operations were harvester–forwarder technologies, while a larger scale of damage could be expected from ground-based extraction systems (skidders) and cable yarders. Animal power, if applicable, tended to be very neutral to the forest environment. A decrease in damage is possible by optimising skid trail and strip road planning, careful completion of forest operations and training for operators. The existence of legal documents controlling post-harvesting stand damage are rare and have been implemented in only two countries; there is no post-harvesting control on soil damage and natural regeneration.

中文翻译：

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采伐活动对森林土壤，更新和林分有多少影响？

审查目的

降低森林利用对森林环境的影响是可持续森林管理改善的一部分。作为森林利用的一部分，木材采伐也会造成环境影响。森林作业的主要影响在于土壤，再生和剩余林分。本次审查的目的是确定森林利用的最新状态，确定森林经营如何以及在多大程度上影响森林土壤，再生和剩余林分。特别注意了影响的程度和限制这种影响的潜力。

最近的发现

有许多有关森林采伐的出版物，但是大多数出版物没有提供全面的框架，它们主要侧重于森林破坏的一个或很少方面。为了增进对森林作业影响的一般认识，建议应审查近期调查结果的范围，并应在一份文件中汇总来自不同区域的现有结果。

概要

研究发现，以机器为基础的林地作业影响最小的是收割机—转送技术，而地面提取系统（集材机）和电缆架料机则可能造成更大的破坏。如果有的话，动物力量往往对森林环境非常中立。通过优化滑道和带状道路规划，仔细完成森林作业以及对操作员进行培训，可以减少损坏。控制收获后林分损害的法律文件很少见，仅在两个国家得到实施；收获后没有对土壤破坏和自然更新的控制。