Forest Operations Review

BACKGROUND:

On a mild, clear, and sunny day in the South, a skidder operator was pulling a drag of poplar logs with a cable skidder. The skidder had just crossed the bridge mats and started up a steep hill when the drive shaft came out. He and the timber cutter tried to fix the problem. They removed the belly pan and found that all but two of the bolts from the U joint yoke to the rear end were out. Since the skidder driver could not reach the last two bolts, he asked the timber cutter to see if he could reach them.

BACKGROUND:

Very early in the morning on a clear, cool fall day in the Appalachians, a triaxle haul truck operator was unloading his load at a woodyard.

BACKGROUND:

On a clear summer morning in the Southeast, a skidder was moving a loader from one log deck to another. The terrain was level.

BACKGROUND:

On a cloudy, cool, fall morning in the Appalachians, a log truck driver had temporarily left the cab of his loaded triaxle log truck at the sloped landing of a harvesting operation.

BACKGROUND:

On a sunny, warm, humid summer afternoon in the Northeast, the owner of a self-loading log truck was loading tree trimmings from a power line maintenance operation. The operator was performing the trimming operation as a contractor for an electric power company.

BACKGROUND: On a spring afternoon in the Appalachians, an independent mechanic shop owner was adjusting the air brakes on a dump truck owned by a logging contractor. The mechanic asked for help from the owner of the logging company.

BACKGROUND: On a clear, summer afternoon in the Southeast, a skidder was pulling a knuckleboom loader along a narrow, level woods road, so the loader could be connected to a truck during moving operations.

BACKGROUND: On a clear, dry, summer day in the South, an equipment operator was moving a skidder from one end of an old, abandoned woodyard to another. The terrain was flat, and the skidder operator was following an existing, old road.

BACKGROUND: On a summer morning in the Southcentral U.S., an equipment operator was felling a natural pine stand with a feller-buncher. The terrain was level, and weather conditions were dry and sunny, with a light wind. There was a moderate level of underbrush in the timber stand.

BACKGROUND: On a late winter afternoon in the West, a company’s mechanic was repairing a stroke delimber. Weather conditions were good—cool and clear.