How do you harvest & transport wood?

Mature trees are harvested for large diameter sawlogs at generally 28 to 35 years of age for pine plantations, and from native forest at 80 to 100 years. Thinnings at an earlier age can produce smaller sawlogs, but mostly other lower value products.   Mature tree size is quite variable depending on site and climatic conditions, species, growth rate, and past silviculture.

Pine plantations are usually thinned at least twice in their growth cycle - typically between the ages of 13 to 24 years, for a range of products. At this stage, trees removed are of smaller diameter. Most eucalypt plantations are being grown for wood chips on short 10 to 15 year rotations, and so there is no thinning. Those eucalypt plantations being grown for sawlogs may be non-commercially thinned very early at age 4 to 6, or thinned later at age 10 to 15 for wood chips or firewood. In  some natural regrowth forests, thinning is conducted after 25 to 40 years, as growth rate is generally slower. Many natural regrowth forests are not thinned.

After logs are cut out of felled trees, they are moved to the roadside, loaded onto trucks and transported from the forest to a sawmill or other facility for processing. Trucks are usually large semi trailers, B-Doubles or ‘road trains’ with two or three trailers of logs.