This was a demonstration organized by BIFF (Breadalbane Initiative for Farm Forestry) yesterday. This small Forcat forwarder is the only one of its type in the country. It appears to be a cost-effective means of extracting timber from farm woodlands without causing ground damage. This first site was essentially a swamp and you would never know that the machine had been here. The machine then moved to Craigvinean Forest near Dunkeld to move much larger timber on a steep slope. This machines costs about £25,000, a fraction of the cost of a commercial timber forwarder. It would allow work to be done in Perthshire that would not otherwise be contemplated, and the scale of operations is certainly more suited to local farm conditions. The 80 foot winch is especially useful for tricky sites. The Forcat can pull a 3 tonne load on a trailer, and can skid individual logs up to 1.5 tonnes or so on firmer ground. The effective forwarding distance is approx 300 metres or so, allowing timber to be taken to a hard standing for uplift, or to be processed in to fuelwood. This type of machine could allow a lot of unmanaged woods in Perthshire to be worked, especially those alongside rivers, which would also help the riparian environment. We would certainly support efforts by BIFF to have one introduced to Highland Perthshire.
For further information you can contact Greg Thexton at the Forestry Commission at 01738 442830 or check out the machine online at www.forcat.ca.
The machine is Canadian. You can enlarge any of these pictures by clicking on them. They extend to a second page here as well, and there are a few videos of the machine at work.
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