Forest tending in Slovenia has consistently fallen short of planned annual volumes due to various challenges, including high labor costs, declining timber prices and reduced subsidies. These factors have driven the adoption of innovative forest management techniques, such as situational thinning. In our thesis, we established 10 research plots: five for selective thinning and five for situational thinning. On each plot, we conducted time studies to measure the duration of tree selection and marking, as well as felling. Additionally, we recorded heart rates of the worker and measured fuel and oil consumption for both methods. The results showed that tree selection and marking on plots with situational thinning required 2.2 times less time compared to selective thinning, with lower associated physical workloads. Felling operations on plots with situational thinning were 2.5 times faster than on those with selective thinning. Fuel and oil consumption were also significantly lower with situational thinning, with reductions of 2.2 and 2.3 times, respectively. However, the physical workload during felling was higher with situational thinning, as indicated by an average heart rate of 140.4 bpm, compared to 131,7 bpm for selective thinning. These findings highlight situational thinning as time and resource-efficient alternative, albeit with some trade offs in worker physical strain during felling activities.
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