Fuelbreak management with a multipurpose light tracked harvester

The increasing risk of wildfires in Mediterranean regions requires innovative solutions to apply forest management and fire prevention. This study focuses on the performance of a multifunctional forestry machine - developed for timber harvesting in steep terrain - in the context of firebreak maintenance. The selected equipment is a KDH self-levelling tracked harvester designed for thinning. It installed a quick coupler allowing to rapidly switch the tool deployed. A processor head with grapple function (Woody 40) was used to fell and process trees as well as haul timber by shovel logging. Following, a mulcher was installed to comminute slash and shrubs, eliminating above-ground fuels. Parameters such as timber value recovery, fuel biomass reduction and operational efficiency were recorded. Felling, processing and hauling trees required 29 machine-hours per hectare while mulching was accomplished in 13 machine-hours per hectare. These preliminary results suggest that the proposed solution can significantly reduce the costs of firebreak maintenance in Mediterranean forests compared to the current system based on chainsaw felling/processing supported by excavator. The high off-road mobility of the harvester together with the simplified logistics in relocating a small-sized multipurpose machine offer a scalable solution for management of high-risk regions.