Background - Forest Machine Compendium

The objective of this compendium is to contribute to the improvement of knowledge and information about small-scale harvesting technology in British Columbia. The project also aims to provide unbiased information for forestry professionals and to strengthen entrepreneur's ability to support innovative energy systems based on forest biomass by promoting technical, logistical and organisational improvements of small-scale biomass utilization.

The compendium aim is to improve the knowledge and understanding of:

•Available small scale harvesting technologies from Canada and abroad

•Provide basic information about existence of machine dealers

•Provide unbiased information about investment costs and productivities of these technologies

•Provide expert opinion about suitability of the technology in the BC context

•Evaluate training needs of the different technologies

•Develop a simple matrix that categorizes technology based on suitability for different operations

Please note that the presented list only provides a general overview and is not exclusive. This document acts rather as a living database that provides a snapshot in time and will need to be updated to maintain relevancy. The next steps in this process of evaluation will be to select potential scenarios for a detailed costing exercise, followed by a field study to test performance in BC conditions.