Date Available

12-7-2011

Year of Publication

2001

Document Type

Thesis

College

Agriculture

Department

Forestry

First Advisor

Jeffery W. Stringer

Abstract

This paper describes a study designed to determine average labor and machine times required to implement erosion control and revegetation best management practices (BMPs) for skid trails in Kentucky. Labor and machine activities were recorded for 14,400 feet of skid trail on 10 nonindustrial private logging sites. Water bar construction and reshaping activities such as filling ruts and berm removal were filmed continuously with a video camera and then analyzed using time-motion study techniques. Labor activities for revegetation such as seeding and application of fertilizer were also timed. The average total machine time for retirement activities per 1000 feet was 51 minutes for sites using dozers and 52 minutes for sites using skidders. The average water bar construction time using a bulldozer was 1.5 minutes (n=112) while the average construction time using a skidder was 3.5 minutes (n = 21). The average amount of labor time required to seed 1000 feet of skid trail was 23 minutes (n = 5). Three methods of water bar construction were observed and analyzed to identify differences among them. While there were significant differences among the three methods, the data suggest that skid trail percent slope may have the greatest effect on water bar construction times.

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