| Due to climate change with its extreme weather conditions, the roundwood supply chain is increasingly exposed to damage events. Accompanying sales problems in the domestic and international forestry industry affect the management of these additional, unscheduled roundwood volumes. Already harvested timber must then be temporarily stored on site or/and treated to prevent or control bark beetle infestation. However, interim storage away from the customer requires appropriate precautions to ensure timber quality during storage, which can be degraded by insect infestation, fungal infection, and abiotic factors. Debarking is an effective and long-established measure against bark beetle infestation. In steep terrain, the respective assortments could be debarked at the forest roadside during the harvesting operation.
Debarked assortments have the advantage that, from a phytosanitary point of view, the propagation of bark beetles in the forest can be prevented. At the same time, debarking in the larval and pupal stages has a decimating effect on the population density of the insects and thus has a controlling effect. With regard to the quality of the stored assortments, debarking also counteracts the possibility of breeding and development of longhorn beetles and thus prevents a technical reduction in quality. In addition, the possibility of blue stain fungi and other bark- and wood-breeding insects being introduced is reduced in debarked saw logs.
Therefore, the aim of this research project is to build on the previous project \“DEBARK\” and to analyze and evaluate the potential of debarking also in steep terrain timber harvesting. The focus will be on the effects of debarking on timber harvesting, the propagation potential of bark beetles and longhorn beetles, and the blue stain of the assortments. As a result, the knowledge gained will be prepared for the responsible decision-makers in day-to-day business. |