Commonly Used Equipment
The following are some of the most commonly used equipment in forestry with a description of what they are used for. To see these monster machines in action check out the "Additional Information" page of the site - it contains links to videos on YouTube.
Harvesters: These vehicles have a long boom that are equipped with one of several different harvesting heads of many kinds including fixed and dangling that grab one tree at a time, cut it at the base, de-limb, cut into equal lengths and stack them, all in one process with one machine |  (Cat.com, 2009) |
 (Southeastasia.cat.com, 2009) | Feller Bunchers: Similar to Harvesters in that
they are large vehicles with a boom and head attached which grab trees and cuts
them at the base, only they grab many and not just one at a time and these
trees are then bunched and laid in a pile without further processing until
later (by other machinery). They can have wheels or tracks, and even come in smaller 'skid-steer' versions (resemble a small bulldozer). |
Forwarders: Forwarders are large log transporting trucks with an
attached boom to grab and bunch tree logs and load them onto the flatbed
section. Forwarders can have both wheels as well as tracks, depending on the terrain. |  (Cat.com, 2009) |
 (Scottdugas.com, 2009) |
Bulldozers:
Able to effectively move massive amounts of land, used for clearing land, making bush roads and moving excessive brush and debris out of the way. |
Knuckleboom Loaders: A large loader vehicle with a boom and a hydraulic claw that grabs tree logs and loads them either onto a flatbed or into a sawmill. |  (UNB.ca, 2009) |
(Taiwan.cat.com, 2009)  (Deere.com, 2009) | Skidders: A large machine that grab
many logs at once with a hydraulic claw and drag them behind
the vehicle toward the necessary location. Once again, skidders can have wheels or tracks depending on the terrain. |
Yarder: A crane structure on tracks with cables that
attach and pull up logs from the bottom of a hill to the top when the
land is too steep for skidders to climb. Yarders are a very dangerous machine with a wide range of hazards for both the operator and workers hooking up the cable to the trees, as well as any other worker on the hill at the time. | (Mikepihllogging.com, 2009)  (Chrisj.winisp.net, 2009) |
 (Scrapetv.com, 2009) |
Wood Chipper: Used to dispose of all smaller tree brush that cannot be used for timber but can be used for the wood chips for mulch, plywood, or particle board. |
Meri-Crusher: Crushing leftovers from trees, including stumps, Clearing tracks, Planting land preparing, Preparing of anti-fire lanes , Forest road maintenance, Clearing and maintenance of electric power lines |  (Hud-son.com, 2009) |
