The FESA handbook, compiled in 2010, can be downloaded from their website.
The South African Ground Based Harvesting Handbook is one of the more recent logging handbooks available to foresters and students. It was compiled by industry experts in the South African forestry industry. As the name indicates, only ground based harvesting is included, and Forest Engineering South Africa (FESA) has another handbook available from their website that covers cable yarding. Even though the book was compiled by South Africans, the information is applicable to most countries.
The handbook consists of seven chapters. The first two chapters give an overview of the contents of the handbook, as well as an overview of what ground based harvesting is, different ground based harvesting systems and methods, nomenclature used, and an introduction to supply chain management. The third chapter contains more technical detail, covering the different machines used for felling, processing, extraction and loading. The information for each machine category includes terminology, nomenclature, capabilities, productivity and equipment application. Chapters four and five cover machine and system costings, as well as strategic, tactical, annual and operational planning. Chapters five and six provide measures to address possible environmental impacts and safety and health risks. The handbook ends with a glossary to explain the terms used in the document. The handbook can be downloaded from the FESA part of the ICFR website. Source: www.icfr.ukzn.ac.za