FERIC has been involved in the development of mobile rock crusher technology for several years. In 1993 FERIC formed an advisory committee comprising contractors, forest companies, manufacturers, and funding agencies to establish the basic criteria for an "ideal" mobile rock crusher. The committee concluded that the crusher must be easy to transport, economical, and adaptable to a machine that is common on forest operations. 
FAHR Industries built the Forester C2000 in cooperation with FERIC based on the committee's recommendations. This small rock crusher which mounts quickly on a front-end loader was evaluated by FERIC. The Forester C2000 proved to be reliable and effective with a travel speed of 300 m/h and production of up to 400 m3 of crushed material per kilometre of windrow. (Other, similar machines exist but have not been studied). Maintenance of forest access roads is a continuing process which often requires the removal of rocks from the roadbed and ditches. It is now possible to accomplish this while producing crushed rock materials at the road site. For details see FERIC Technical Note TN-230, 6 p, Provencher, Y. and P. Caouette, The Forester C2000 Mobile Rock Crusher
Synthetic-fiber ropes such as KevlarTM and Spectra® offer high strength and low weight but have not been evaluated for long term use in forestry applications. Wire-rope mainlines are heavy and operators can seldom pull them out more than 15 to 25 m from the skidder. This is a handicap in sensitive site logging operations where machine travel is either restricted or impractical. FERIC tested the concept of light weight synthetic fiber mainline for cable skidders in 1994 - 1996 in New Brunswick. These initial tests demonstrated that synthetic-fiber rope has adequate strength and handling characteristics to replace wire-rope mainlines on cable skidders for long distance winching on sensitive sites where reduced skidtrail use is critical. Its light weight permits winching up to three times the distance commonly used with wire ropes of similar sizes without a significant increase in operator fatigue. For more information obtain FERIC Field Note No.: Skidding/Forwarding-33, June 1996 by Jean-Marie Golsse.
Maximum distance |
_1000 m |
Distance accuracy |
_ 6.0 cm |
Vertical angle accuracy |
_ 0.1__ |
Azimuth accuracy |
_ 0.3__ |
Tree diameter accuracy |
_ 1.0 cm |
The capabilities and costs of portable laser measuring instruments have continued to improve. There are several instruments available worldwide with a variety of characteristics. These portable instruments weigh from one to three kilograms and cost between about US$2000 and US$10000. Typical specifications for these instruments are approximately as shown in this chart.
A recent paper is by C. J. Liu, Using portable laser EDM for forest traverse surveys, Canadian Journal of Forest Research, Vol. 25, No. 5, 1995, p 753-766. He experimentally tested one of these laser technology instruments designed for surveying and tree measurement. The study showed that the digital laser EDM (electronic distance measurement) device was 10 times more cost effective than the traditional analogous surveying equipment i.e. compass, chain, and clinometer. The study findings led to several suggestions, one of which is that the portable laser EDM device should be adopted for forest stand traverse surveys because it is easy to use, accurate, and cost effective. Other cited sources suggest that the cost of surveys by portable EDM will be less that 50% of traditional survey costs.
