Value recovery with harvesters in southeastern USA pine stands

Cut-to-length is not the harvesting system of choice in the southeastern USA although it is perceived to be more environmentally friendly and to have the ability to recover more value from cut stems. In this paper we address the value recovery aspect of harvesters by comparing the optimal recoverable value, as calculated by optimization software, to the actual value recovered by the harvesters at three sites. The actual values recovered at the sites were respectively 93, 90 and 94%. At all the sites the harvesters tended to cut fewer but longer logs than the optimal solution suggested.