FAO Guide to Forest Road Engineering in Mountainous Terrain

The FAO Guide to Forest Road Engineering in Mountainous Terrain was produced in draft form this month. A strategic plan, or forest management plan, guides both the development and the implementation of forestry practices on the ground. The objective is simple, namely to provide for practices that are safe, productive and environmentally sound. Yet its formulation is challenging. Expectations of forest resources management have evolved tremendously in recent years. The result is a demand for greater consultation and a more integrated approach to planning that includes cultural, ecological, economic and social factors. This FAO guide has been prepared in response to that demand. Its primary objective is to describe recommended practices for forest road engineering in mountainous terrain with emphasis on how management objectives for the area under the strategic plan are to be met by the proposed road locations. The information in this guide to forest road engineering on mountainous terrain has been compiled with the basic intent of disseminating practices that address concerns for timber production, forage production and grazing, recreation and tourism, water, fisheries, wildlife, biodiversity and cultural heritage. As such, the guide will be of use to foresters, biologists, ecologists, engineers, logging specialists and social scientists. It will allow policy-makers to develop or refine national, regional and local codes of practice with reference to a coherent framework for decision analysis.

Recommendations in the guide have been compiled with reference to emerging best management practices, the basics of sound engineering practice and a critical evaluation of field experience from case studies reported in the literature. The original scope of the FAO Guide to Forest Road Engineering in Mountainous Terrain was established at an international workshop that was convened to identify opportunities for improved strategic planning, given the nature of current practices and evolution of emerging demands. A draft of the guide will be circulated to leading experts, for review and discussion. Consequently, the final version will be a compilation of knowledge from FAO member countries, research institutes, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

Several individuals contributed to the formation and development of this work, including the experts who attended the FAO Lampertheim Forest Roads Workshop. The bulk of this guide has been drafted by Jonathan Fannin of the University of British Columbia, Canada. The guide is not a stand-alone document. Rather it is intended as a companion to the FAO Model Code of Forest Harvesting Practice, which was written to improve standards of utilization and reduce environmental impacts. As such, a specific intent of the guide is to focus on considerations that influence forest road engineering, within the broader context of forest resources management and with application to mountainous terrain. It is also intended to complement work of the FAO on sustainable mountain development, for which responsibilities were assumed following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), as a contribution to the International Year of the Mountain in 2002.

The FAO Guide to Forest Road Engineering in Mountainous Terrain is organized into nine chapters plus appendix and bibliography. Every chapter, except the introduction, includes these five topics:

� What it is
� Guiding principles
� Objectives
� Potential consequences of inadequate practices
� Recommended practices

The chapter titles are as follows. Some of the specific items discussed are also listed.

1) INTRODUCTION

� Forest harvesting on steep ground
� Purpose
� Scope

2) STRATEGIC PLANNING

� Road impacts in tropical countries

3) ACCESS PLANNING

� Geometric controls on road alignment
� Observations during road layout
� Guidelines on cutslope and fillslope angles
� Guidelines on swell and shrinkage of materials
� Cost estimation
� Design software

4) ROAD PAVEMENT

� Geosynthetics
� Dust palliatives

5) DRAINAGE

� Road drainage
� Selection of pipe culvert
� Guidelines on cross-drainage (culvert) spacing
� Culvert size
� Fish passage

6) EQUIPMENT SELECTION

� Notes on hydraulic excavators
� Notes on rock drills
� Unit costs
� Machine rates

7) ROAD CONSTRUCTION

8) SLOPE PROTECTION AND STABILIZATION

9) ROAD MAINTENANCE

The FAO Guide to Forest Road Engineering in Mountainous Terrain is being distributed to cooperators and reviewers. Suggestions and contributions are sought from a wide range of potential users. The expectation is that a finished version will be published next year. The Guide is designed to allow for frequent updating as experience with its use accumulates and new techniques become available.

If you would like to participate in the review process for this FAO guide to forest road engineering, please send an e-mail to Joachim.Lorbach@fao.org expressing your interest.

Selected Aspects of Forest Harvesting in the Tropics

This is a new publication that assimilates three previous reports and highlights pertinent aspects that can be gleaned from these previous efforts. Information is worldwide with special emphasis on 43 counties with substantial tropical forest. The draft of this publication by Attila Lengyel, University of West Hungary, will be available this summer.

Some of the salient issues discussed dealing with forest harvesting problems include:

• Organizational form
  • The typical concessionaire arrangement does not provide incentive for sustainable forest management.

• Harvesting schemes
  • Various selective harvesting systems are considered appropriate for large areas of the tropics. The degree of success depends upon the care with which they are applied.

• Harvesting practices and intensity
  • A large percentage of merchantable timber goes to waste for a variety of reasons

• The area of forest logged is much greater than would be necessary with better utilization practices.

• Harvesting damage
  • Lack of financial interest in the future crop is probably the main reason for the excessive damage levels reported.

• Institutional factors
  • Most governments make political commitments to sustainable forest management but do not follow through with concrete actions such as the allocation of sufficient financial resources.

• Discussion of solution proposals
  • There is consensus that wood harvesting should be fully integrated within the management system.
  • Good controlled logging (Reduced Impact Logging) is the most promising silvicultural tool available for the management of natural forests.
  • Further, if tropical forests are to be retained as forest then their resources must be utilized to avoid being perceived by local people as having less value than other land use options.

For more information contact Joachim Lorbach, FAO, Rome, e-mail: Joachim.Lorbach@fao.org.

The International Conference on the Application of Reduced Impact Logging to Advance Sustainable Forest Management

Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, 26 February � 1 March 2001

The more than 250 participants represented a wide variety of organizations, institutions and companies from the non-governmental, public and private sectors. The final conference proceedings are expected to be published by the end of this year. Contact Patrick Durst, RAP, for copies: Patrick.Durst@fao.org

Items on the agenda included key technologies, improvement of forest harvesting, economics of reduced impact logging, safety and health, training, research, monitoring, practical experiences and policy instruments. Post-conference tour participants received an insight into helicopter or peat-swamp logging techniques.

The following summaries were extracted from a few of the papers presented.

RIL is the application of technologies that are wellknown and common practice in many industrialised countries. RIL is something new to tropical forests and a new mind set is required. Often logging is considered to be a subject that should not be discussed in polite society. The consequences of this are:

• Logging operations seldom get the professional attention they require and therefore are often poorly planned, improperly executed and inadequately supervised.

• Foresters and forestry technicians frequently have little appreciation for the positive benefits of timber harvesting and only a vague, uncomfortable sense of the very real environmental hazards.

Foresters often come to believe that environmentally sound harvesting is impossible at a level of cost that will permit an economically viable forest industry.

RIL for Forest Management: Adiwarsita Adinegoro

Conclusions:

• It is an integral requirement of the certification process
• need for an effective incentive and disincentive system for forest managers
• there are many constraints that should be dealt with as challenges
• illegal logging and smuggling need to be controlled

The Trouble with RIL: A. J. Leslie
Since forest-based development depends on industrial use of forest resources, timber harvesting is an unavoidable component of Sustainable Forest Management. But it is very tightly constrained timber harvesting.

Impediments to Adoption of RIL in the Indonesian Corporate Sector: A. W. Klassen
Klassen asserts that: Government regulations that seek to impose RIL guidelines will fail in the present environment in Indonesia. Guidelines and practices must be adopted voluntarily because they represent a better alternative to current practices, not because they are demanded by regulations (unenforceable). Klassen recommends changing the focus about RIL away from research and towards implementation.

Forest Harvesting Roads: C. H. Wells
Training programmes should be developed for roading supervisors, forest officers and operators. This should involve hands-on experience in equipment management and construction techniques. Development of road training is not a trivial matter given the need for access to land and equipment. Such training may be best done on a regional basis.

Reduced Impact Logging: Does it Cost or Does it Pay? Wulf Killmann
The definition of RIL is summarized as: Intensively planned and carefully controlled implementation of harvesting operations to minimize the impact on forest stands and soils, usually in individual tree selection cutting. This was one of six papers addressing the financial and economic consequences of RIL.

Workshop on New Trends in Wood Harvesting with Cable Systems for Sustainable Forest Management in the Mountains

Ossiach, Austria, 18-24 June 2001
More than 100 persons from 26 counties participated in this workshop at the Ossiach Forestry Training Centre.

Schematic and detail of two of the cable systems demonstrated in the field.
(Horek and Mauer)

Participants exchanged experience and shared state-of-the-art knowledge on recent developments in forest harvesting with cable systems for sustainable forest management in mountainous areas. The Joint FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Technology, Management and Training organized the workshop. IUFRO participated and the Austrian government provided support.

More than 40 papers were presented covering a wide range of issues associated with cable system harvesting. Examples of current technology were presented with suggestions of future advances. The changes evident in the operation of cable systems were discussed. Issues on sustainable forest operations and improved utilisation using cable systems were deliberated. The reduction of environmental impacts and fibre waste were addressed. The productivity and costs of alternative machine and operational combinations were analysed. Several papers stressed the need to integrate the planning of road and extraction activities, especially with cable systems. Human resources and worker health, safety and training were important elements of several presentations. Discussions of work organization and business arrangements were also presented.

The participants travelled to several locations to observe cable harvesting systems in operation in the mountains of Austria.

The workshop proceedings are expected to be published by the end of this year. Please contact Joachim Lorbach, FAO, Rome to obtain copies: Joachim.Lorbach@fao.org.

Seminar on Harvesting of Non-Wood Forest Products

Menemen-Izmir, Turkey, 2 - 8 October 2000
This seminar was held at the invitation of the Turkish Ministry of Forestry under the auspices of the Joint FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Technology, Management and Training. Some 85 participants from 32 countries around the world attended. They included forest operations managers, private and public forest enterprise representatives, officials of forest services and administrations, NGO and association representatives, scientists, teachers and trainers.

The seminar addressed the following topics:

• policies to promote sustainable forest operations and utilization of non-wood forest products (NWFP);
• inventory methods and mapping of NWFP;
• involvement (financial, organizational and administrative) of the private sector and NGOs in the harvesting, processing and marketing of NWFP in order to enhance the employment and income-generation of local populations;
• planning and management of sustainable forest harvesting operations for NWFP, and establishment of standards for appropriate harvesting systems and techniques for reducing environmental impacts and waste;
• extension, training and education to improve forest harvesting practices, productivity and availability of NWFP;
• organizations and institutions dealing with the collection of statistical data and valuation of NWFP.

There were 41 papers and posters, most originally in English with summaries in the other two languages (French & Russian), presented in plenary. Many very lively discussions were generated among the participants. The participants expressed a widely felt need for more information and training on the task of sustainably managing for Non-Wood Forest Products. Several specific conclusions and recommendations were made in the seminar report. Copies of the seminar proceedings are available without charge from FAO, Rome. Please send requests to
Forest-Harvesting@fao.org

First International Precision Forestry Symposium

Seattle, Washington, USA, 17 - 20 June 2001, The University of Washington hosted this symposium to share research on forest management at a new scale of resolution and accuracy. Precision forestry employs high-resolution data to support site-specific decision-making. It provides measurements and processes to initiate, cultivate, and harvest trees, as well as, enhance riparian zones and other environmental resources. The goal is to produce economic and environmental benefits. There were more than 100 participants from 11 countries.

Topics included:

Remote Sensing of Forest Land and Vegetation

Airborne LIDAR, GIS, high-resolution photography

GPS surveying, models generated from LIDAR data, vehicle management and environmental conservation

Real Time Inventory, chemical sensors, automated sensors, ultrasound

Forest Harvesting and Engineering

The FAO Forest Harvesting and Engineering Programme continues to promote environmentally sound, economically feasible and socially acceptable forest operations.

The Committee on Forestry (COFO) is FAO's most important vehicle for facilitating dialogue in the forestry sector. The biennial sessions bring together heads of forest services and other senior officials to identify policy and technical issues, to seek solutions and to advise FAO. The 15th session of COFO was 12-16 March 2001 at FAO in Rome. One action of COFO was to commend FAO and its member countries in Asia for the development of Codes of Practice in the Asia-Pacific Region, including several national codes. It suggested that other regions, particularly Africa and Latin America, could benefit from a similar initiative.

The Forest Harvesting and Engineering Programme has followed the FAO Model Code of Forest Harvesting Practice with several efforts.

FAO prepared jointly with a number of other agencies the Regional Strategy for Implementing the Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia�Pacific, published in 1999 by the Asia�Pacific Forestry Commission. Joint FAO/ILO support was given to develop a National Code of Forest Harvesting Practice for China. This draft China Code was distributed for review at the March COFO session.

A meeting of organizations interested in furthering the development of codes of practice in Africa met for a day, 23 April 2001, at FAO in Rome. It was recognized that the different organizations are active in most areas connected with forest harvesting, however, each of them has particular comparative advantage, which can contribute towards reaching a common goal.

The participants of the meeting agreed that all agencies present would jointly strive in Central and West Africa for the improvement of forest harvesting practice in order to contribute to a better management of all forests in the region.

Another one-day workshop, 24 May 2001, was held in Yaounde, Cameroon. The effort to share information and formulate strategies to promote reduced impact logging in Central Africa will continue. A primary goal is to develop a Regional Code of Harvesting Practice for forested Africa.

FAO Rome will function as an information and networking hub. Towards this end a listserver for harvesting issues, with special emphasis on Central and West Africa was established. This French language listserver complements the English language RILNET operated from Bangkok and focused on the Asia� Pacific Region.

FAO will take the lead in the development of the Code of Harvesting Practice, whereas others will take the lead in training issues.

Several case studies supporting efforts towards sound forest operations are underway and expected to be published in the coming year.

• Roads in Nepal
• Reduced impact harvesting in Central Africa
• Forest infrastructure in Laos
• Reduced impact harvesting in Mozambique
• Reduced impact harvesting in Suriname
• Reduced impact harvesting in Papua New Guinea
• Impact assessment in Brazil
• Reduced impact harvesting in Malaysia

News notes

New FAO education database
Descriptions of short courses in forestry and related subjects are now available on-line.

The database is meant to provide information on short courses available worldwide on forestry and related subjects such as watershed management, wild life management and ecotourism. Users can search for courses according to the area of training, institution, country or language. Specific information can be obtained on training courses and on the institution providing the course.

The database is designed for a broad range of external users, providing information to students and anyone interested in forestry. It is aimed to give education and training institutions the opportunity to advertise the short courses they offer. The database is open to any organization (private company, NGO, state agency, etc.) desiring worldwide distribution of information. It is very important that the database is updated continually. Take a look and provide some feedback. You are invited to send new or updated information and to distribute the database address widely.
www.fao.org/forestry/for/forc/free/education/courses.asp

Life-cycle analysis of wood
The Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) is a group of more than thirty organizations with the goal to provide a full accounting of all economic and environmental factors over the life-cycle of structural building material. This is a major effort to understand all the parameters (input/outputs) associated with growing, using, and disposing wood. The final product will be an analytical tool for modelling and comparing alternatives. An interim report of the findings will soon be available. For more information please contact Bruce Lippke, CORRIM President. E-mail: blippke@u.washington.edu

In Germany, the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products and the Chairs of Forestry and Forest Products of the University of Hamburg are cooperating with FAO on life-cycle projects. Research activities currently concentrate on the development of methods and the carrying out of life cycle inventory analyses and life cycle impact assessments for forest and timber industry production. For more information please contact Johannes Welling. E-mail: welling@holz.uni-hamburg.de

Detect defects in trees

Theodor D. Leininger, Daniel L. Schmoldt and Frank H. Tainter recently produced a paper exploring ultrasonic detectors. Ultrasonic decay detectors (UDDs) have been available commercially for several years. Recently, a UDD has shown promise in detecting bacterial wetwood in red oaks in the southern United States and in a Chilean hardwood species. Current UDDs only measure ultrasound signal time of flight (i.e., velocity) from the transmitter to the receiver. This measurement is insufficient to distinguish wood decay from a void, or either of those from the cell wall degradation. Further, a 5-cm diameter hole is created in the bark. This process takes time and causes wounds that serve as entry points for pathogens and insects. An overview is presented of the current effort to develop a UDD that records time-domain and frequency-domain waveforms that can be positively linked to individual types of defects and minimizes tree wounds. Preliminary results suggest that further experimentation can lead to a new generation of UDDs. Contact Theodor Leininger at USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station. E-mail: tleininger@fs.fed.us

SkogForsk has teamed with researchers from the Lund College of Technology and developed technology capable of detecting root rot in trees. The principle is simple, involving measurement of the electrical conductivity between two points on a tree roughly 10 cm apart. Contact: Lars-G�ran Sundblad, E-mail:
lars-goran.sundblad@skogforsk.se

Consequences of an ecological transformation of forests for harvesting operations and timber marketing
The Forest Research Institute of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, is effecting a project that deals with the ecological transformation of even-aged pure stands to uneven-aged, structured stands. The transformation of forests leads to modified logging conditions. There are more assortments, less production in pieces per ha and an irregular intensity of utilization. Harvesting technologies must be innovative and modified to handle large diameter stems and skidding only on skid trails with intervals of 30 to 40 m. Tracked harvesters with a high lift capacity and a long-reach crane are one possibility examined. For more information contact: Manuela Bacher, email: manuela.bacher@fva.bwl.de

Sustaining Long-Term Productivity and Ecological Functions of Intensively-Managed Wet-site Forests
James Burger, Michael Aust, Yi-Jun Xu and Steven Patterson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University recently described a long-term lowland project. Intensive silvicultural practices, such as timber harvesting using heavy machinery, have caused concerns about surface soil damage and hydrologic deterioration. Managers want to know how soil and site disturbances affect long-term sustainability of forest ecosystems, and what types of measures can be used to mitigate disturbances. Understanding cause and effect relationships among intensive forest management, soil productivity, wet-site function, and timber production will allow the development of appropriate guidelines and models for forestry activities. With this in mind, a long-term study in three 20-ha loblolly pine wet-site plantations was established. The study has five five-year phases. For more information please contact James A. Burger, e-mail: jaburger@vt.edu.

Save money and reduce pollution
FERIC study looks at lubrication. The result indicates that a newer continuous chain oiler system used about one-half the lubricant per m³ as the conventional harvester chain-saw system. The payback period can be less than one year, oil discharge into the environment is reduced and saw chain and bar life should be improved. FERIC, Advantage Vol. 2 No. 3 January 2001 by Brent McPhee.

A SkogForsk study suggests that if the world forest industry improved fuel consumption as the Swedish industry expects to do within two years then the world industry could save about 100 million US dollars per year in fuel costs. The contact for the study is Per-�ke Arvidsson, e-mail: per-ake.arvidsson@skogforsk.se

Changes

Several changes have occurred within the forest harvesting group here at FAO, Rome.

Norbert Winkler moved on to Brussels after three years here. Fran�ois Ndeckere-Ziangba moved to another branch within FAO. Josiane Hababou-Zamperini, secretary for 25 years, retired in February.

Several others have ably provided assistance here in Rome during the past year, particularly Martin Noebauer, Nikolaus Fernsebner, Attila Lengyel and Jonathan Fannin.

Basic Geosynthetics: A Guide to Best Practices

Geosynthetics are increasingly used to stabilise soils in forest engineering applications. A proper evaluation of the proposed use, materials specification and installation procedures is important to good construction practices. Geosynthetic stabilisation of soils involves four basic functions of reinforcement, separation, filtration and drainage. The extent to which some or all of these functions are mobilised is governed by the site condition and construction application. This guide, based on an integration of recent field studies and applied research, addresses these issues for use of geotextiles and geogrids in forest engineering applications.

The guide includes an introduction to geosynthetic properties, basic functions, site delivery and a checklist for field inspection. Ten construction case reports are provided on forest engineering applications for roads, log-culverts, slope stabilization, subsurface drainage, riprap revetments and bridge abutments in western Canada.

The guide is written with two objectives. First, assist users exercise their professional judgement and experience in developing site-specific recommendations. The construction case reports are provided to illustrate some important considerations in the selection, specification and installation of geosynthetics. Second, promote the use of "best practices" in construction. Examples are drawn from the ten reports. Guidance is developed with reference to standard specification documents and relevant foundation engineering manuals.

The guide is intended for professional foresters, engineers, geoscientists, contractors and technicians involved in the planning, inspection, monitoring and supervision of forest road construction and soil stabilization.

For more information see page eight or directly contact Jonathan Fannin, fax: +1 604 822 9106, e-mail: jonathan.fannin@ubc.ca .

Publications

Athanassiadis, D. 2000. Resource Consumption and Emissions Induced by Logging Machinery in a Life Cycle Perspective. Silvestria 143, Doctoral thesis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Ume�. 76 pp. English.

Beschta, R.L., M.R. Pyles, A.E. Skaugset & C.G. Surfleet 2000. Peakflow responses to forest practices in the western Cascades of Oregon, USA, Journal of Hydrology 233: 102-120, English. The combined effects of road building, clearfelling, cable logging and site preparation were evaluated using long-term peakflow records for nine watersheds in the Cascade Mountains. For small watersheds (~100 ha), results indicate that peakflow increases are not evident for events greater than a 5-yr return interval. For large watersheds (60�670 km²), results indicated no strong evidence for any peakflow increases.

Boston, K. & Dysart, G. A. 2000 Comparison of Felling Techniques on Stump Height and Log Damage with Economic Interpretations, West. J. Appl. For. 15(2): 59�61, English. This study investigated stump heights and butt log damage. The potential value loss was determined for manual felling and five different felling heads for logging sites located in the central North Island of New Zealand. The lowest potential value loss was US$316/ha, while manual felling had the highest potential value loss at over US$1037/ha.

Fannin, R.J. 2000. Basic Geosynthetics: A Guide to Best Practices. Richmond, B.C., Canada, BiTech Publishers, 86 pp. English. (see page 7)

Gardiner, E.S., D.R. Russell Jr., J.D. Hodges & T.C. Fristoe 2000. Impacts of Mechanical Tree Felling on Development of Water Tupelo Regeneration in the Mobile Delta, Alabama, South. J. Appl. For. 24(2): 65-69, English. Stand harvesting promoted establishment of water tupelo seedlings regardless of felling method. But results indicated that mechanical felling techniques used in this study may adversely impact regeneration of water tupelo swamps where coppice is a desirable form of reproduction.

Han, H-S. & Kellogg, L.D. 2000. Damage Characteristics in Young Douglas-Fir Stands from Commercial Thinning with Four Timber Harvesting Systems, West. J. Appl. For. 15(1): 27�33, English. Damage to residual trees from thinning was characterized and compared among harvesting systems: tractor, cut-to-length, skyline, and helicopter. Stands with various residual densities were studied. Recommendations for minimizing stand damage are included.

IPC Groene Ruimte 1999. The Chainsaw in the Tropical Forest. The Netherlands. 32 pp. Dutch, English, French. This booklet with many graphics has been used in training sessions in Gabon, Guyana and Suriname.

Johansson, J. 2000. Excavators and Backhoe Loaders as Base Machines in Logging Operations. Silvestria 141, Doctoral thesis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. 84 pp. English.

Shi, Mingzhang 1997. Principle and Practice of Logging Technology in China, China Forestry Publishing House, ISBN 7-5038-1936-7, 378 pp. Chinese. Here is a book on logging written following the FAO Model Code of Forest Harvesting Practice. Contact: icec@csfu.edu.cn

 Youngblood, A. 2000. Damage to Residual Trees and Advance Regeneration from Skyline and Forwarder Yarding, West. J. Appl. For. 15(2): 101�107, English. Reducing the risk of wildfire and outbreaks of insects and diseases through fuel reduction is a priority management objective on many lands.

FAO Draft Publication Reduced Impact Logging in Tropical Forests (Forest Products Division - Working Paper FOP/08, 283 pp.) This paper is based on a review of 266 articles dealing with logging intensities, waste, residual stand damage and site damage. There are still serious data deficiencies and there is a serious lack of standards in data collection. Readers are requested to send their inputs to expand and improve the final document. You are invited to participate in the future development of a forest harvesting information system. Read the complete draft paper on the FAO web at: www.fao.org/forestry/fop/foph/harvest/publ-e.stm. Send your suggested additions to Joachim.Lorbach@fao.org.

Meetings Appalachian Hardwoods: Managing Change, 15�19 July 2001, Council on Forest Engineering Annual Meeting, Snowshoe, WV, USA. Sponsored by West Virginia University and Westvaco, www.cofe.org 2nd World Symposium on Logistics in Forest Sector, 12�15 August 2001, V�xj�, Sweden. IUFRO and Wood Logistics Network, Kim Sj�str�m, sjostrom@iki.fi. Thinning: A Valuable Forest Management Tool, 9�14 September 2001, Qu�bec City, Qu�bec, Canada. IUFRO, FERIC and resource agencies in Canada, Pieter Kofman, pdk@fsl.dk, www.feric.ca/en/ed/html/iufro-e.htm. Soil Damage in Mountain Areas � Seminar, September 2001, �s-Elverum, Norway. IUFRO 3.11.02 Forest operations on sensitive sites, Ann Merete Furuberg-Gjedtjernet, merete.furuberg@hedmark-f.kommune.no Study, conservation and utilisation of the forest resources, 2�4 October 2001, Sofia, Bulgaria. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Forest research Institute and IUFRO, Tsveta Naydenova, forestin@bulnet.bg, www.bulnet.com/forestin International Mountain Logging and 11th Pacific Northwest Skyline Symposium, 10�12 December 2001, Seattle, Washington, USA. University of Washington, IUFRO etc., Peter Schiess, schiess@u.washington.edu  http://depts.washington.edu/sky2001 The Problems of Spatial Arrangement of the Forest and Cutting Control at Present, 11�19 September 2001, Zvolen, Slovak Republic. Technical University of Zvolen, Faculty of Forestry, Robert Marusak, marusak@vsld.tuzvo.sk Forests and Forestry in Central and Eastern European Countries, The Transition Process and Challenges Ahead, 12�14 Sept. 2001, Debe, Poland. UN-ECE/FAO, Alexander Korotkov,  alexander.korotkov@unece.org,  www.unece.org/trade/timber Working Forests in the Tropics: Conservation through Sustainable Management, February 25-26, 2002, Gainesville, Florida, USA. University of Florida and IUFRO Division 3, Contact: Daniel Zarin, zarin@ufl.edu,  http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/tropics/ Symposium on Models and Systems in Forestry, 4�7 March 2002, Punta de Tralca, Chile. IUFRO and University of Chile, Andr�s Weintraub, aweintra@dii.uchile.cl Council on Forest Engineering (COFE) 2002 Annual Meeting, Auburn University, Alabama,www.cofe.org