Logging also has a direct impact on the environment

The shortwood logging system used in Finland is friendlier to the environment than the tree-with-root system, for the size of stems to be felled by the shortwood logging system is smaller than with the tree-with-root system. What is more, the remaining trees will be less frequently damaged when using the shortwood logging system.

In Finland, felling is almost always carried out by harvesters. The harvesters can also de-branch the stems, cut them to the lengths required by the buyers and pile them. From these piles the timber is transported by forest tractors to the intermediate storage – usually next to the nearest logging road.

The harvester causes clearly less load on the terrain than the forest tractor, which, when fully loaded with timber, weighs considerably more than the harvester. The harvester is able to de-branch the trees on the track, and the branches falling on the track will protect the terrain from the weight of the forest tractor. The harvester has also changed the method of logging: during the rotation period the forest is only visited a few times, whereas before windfalls and other dead trees were removed from the forest each year. Since the forest is, in most cases only visited at intervals of twenty years or so, the amount of decayed wood, cavity trees and rotten snags has increased in the forests since the 1950; this is because trees which have been left to decay for years cannot even be used as firewood.

To some extent, harvesting is still done with a chain saw. If this is the case, the timber is generally transported from the forest with a farm tractor, whose wheels cause more damage to the vegetation and soil than those of a forest tractor. In the absence of a harvester, the piling of branches on the tracks is more difficult.

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