Logging Damages on Forest Regeneration and Soil Compaction Using Ground-based System (Case Study: Asalem Forest Aarea, Guilan )

Forest future depends on forest stands regeneration. Soil is one of the principal capitals in the forest area. It is important to minimize damages to the forest ecosystem during logging operation. In forestry and forest management, it is significant to know the effect of forest logging damages on regeneration, sapling and soil compaction. This study was carried out in Asalem Beech forest area, in the north of Iran. The forest was harvested by selective cutting method. A systematic and randomized sampling method was used for data collection. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques and binomial distribution were used for data analysis. The results showed 14.5 ± 0.99 percent of regeneration and saplings of forest stands were destroyed and damaged by logging operations with 20 m3/ha intensity per year. 9.12 ± 0.83 percent of saplings were totally destroyed and 5.3 ± 0.63 percent were damaged. These damages were caused due to felling, accumulating, skidding and landing. Soil bulk density in range of 0-10 cm depth, logging and skid trails areas were increased 17.54 and 35.61 percent, respectively. To reduce logging damages and soil compaction in forestry, and manage the forest, we need a suitable organization of timber extraction operation, careful designing and standard construction of skid trails on the basis of logging maps before felling the trees down.