Small Scale Harvesting Equipment at the Matthews State Forest

Earlier this month, Zach Olinger, Dustin Reamey, and David Richert took some time to try out the Forcat mini-skidder at the Matthews State Forest.

The Forcat skidder weighs approximately 4,000 lbs, is 10 feet long from blade to rear mounted winch, and is 4 feet 1 inch wide.

We used the Forcat to try and extract some timber that had been felled to demonstrate single tree selection harvesting using directional felling techniques. The Forcat was able to maneuver in between the trees left standing to extract our felled trees.

As you can see in the photos, the felled trees were not exactly high quality trees (this was a worst-first harvesting operation), but they will make good firewood.

After a few hours of "seat time," Dustin was operating the Forcat like a pro. There were a few tricks to learn, as in how to line up the approach to the logs so that they could be winched up to the machine without damaging any of the standing timber.

By the end of the day, the crew decided to see how much the Forcat could pull, so we latched on to a large chestnut oak log--that had apparently been down and dead for several (possibly 20?) years. After some effort, we managed to skid up a 14 foot length. We estimated the weight of this log at approximately 3,000 lbs.

Once we cut into this log, we realized it was much older than we thought--dating back into the early 1700's and perhaps into the 1600's. The ring counts were well over 25 rings to the inch in some places--so a 12 inch radius would give at least a 300 year old tree.

The forest makeover program is a good venue to consider small scale and innovative forest harvesting equipment. The DOF project leaders hope to bring the Forcat skidder back to the region this fall for an in-woods forest management demonstration. We'd love to hear what landowners think about this idea.