ECONOMIC ASPECTS REGARDING THE EXTRACTION OF WOOD USING HORSES: A CASE STUDY.

This paper presents some aspects in the case of extracting wood with horses, insisting on its economic aspects. Three felling areas from production units P.U. V and P.U. VI, Marghita Forest District, Bihor Forest Administration were chosen. The areas included hygienic cuttings, thinning cuttings and progressive fellings, with small volumes of the average trees to allow extraction with horses. The logging costs were determined and then they were compared in different situations according to the share of extraction method by horses, respectively the traditional extraction by winches. The importance of determining unit rates to be grouped into group norms, centralized under the form of tables, with multiple inputs to estimate the logging costs as easily and accurately as possible was also highlighted. Thus, grouped norms have been drawn up for situations/variants of extraction by horses which render the unit costs in different situations. Three major factors that significantly influence the logging costs when using horses were identified, namely: the volume of the average tree, the degree of accessibility and the extraction distance by horses. The logging method has little influence, theoretically, but the cutting of large trees must be performed to facilitate the work by horses in the forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]