Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

In the study, impact of three devices aggregated with farm tractors on forest soil was compared – FRANSGARD 6000 GS cable winch and two processors – NIAB 5-15 and HYPRO 450. The basic difference between the above mentioned machines consists in the fact that the cable winch skids debranched tree stems while processors skid the whole trees, including their tree-tops. The percentage of soil injured in late pine stand thinning reached, respectively: 1.2%, 2.2% and 5.5%. The analysis of significance of differences in Ug indicators characterising the damages induced has shown that only the indicator computed for HYPRO processor is significantly higher than the others. However, as the simulation performed has confirmed, appropriate thickening of skidding routes enables to achieve a comparable level of damages for all the machines examined. Taking into account the impact on forest soil, application of processors aggregated with farm tractors can be recommended for thinning stands.