Jeff Wimer
Oregon State University
Biography
Jeff Wimer currently works as a senior instructor at Oregon State University where he manages the Student Logging Program. Prior to OSU he worked for his families logging and trucking company based out of Albany, OR. Wimer Logging Co. ran 4 tower sides and had 48 trucks. Jeff serves as chairman of the Western Regional Council on Forest Engineering, is President of the Oregon Logging Conference and Vice President of the Pacific Logging Congress.
Jeff has been active in logging safety since the beginning of his career and since 1997 he has been involved with rewriting the OR OSHA Forest Activities logging code. Since 2003 he has been performed just over 24 logging fatality investigations. Jeff has written three books on logging safety. Recently he has been involved with the WA Logger Safety Initiative performing third party audits.
Presentation Topic
Tethered Assisted Harvesting
Presentation Description
Tethered Assisted harvesting has been utilized in Europe for close to two decades. It offers several key advantages to non-tethered harvesting. These systems are recently being introduced to the PNW. Some key limitations to non-tethered include: slope limitations, soil disturbance and safety.
Currently harvesters can navigate slopes up to 70% untethered, but are limited to a downhill operation in such steep terrain. With the utilization of tethered systems these machines have been able to operate on slopes up to 100%.
With tethered systems wheel slip is greatly reduced to almost zero in almost all applications. Newer harvesters utilize an 8-wheel drive system that greatly reduces soil pressure by distributing the overall load. In most dry applications the drive chains can also be removed from the drive system further reducing soil impacts.
The timber industry continues to have the highest fatality rate of all major industries. Within the logging sector a man operating a machine is 10 times safer than working on the ground. Utilization of tethering systems will allow these machines to cover a much larger operational area and reduce the need for men on the ground.
Workshop Schedule
Registration Opens
10:00 AMLight Lunch
11:00 AMKey Note Speaker
12:00 PMPanel: The Economics of Forest Restoration
Topics: Making Forest Restoration Economical, Contractor Logging Costs & Opportunities for Cost-savings, The Economics of Dry Forest Stewardship Projects, and Using the Land Fin Tool
Panel: From Inception to Implementation, Planning for Success
Topics: Planning at the Landscape Scale, Making Use of Good Neighbor Authority, Authorities to Maximize Restoration, and Packaging Federal Resources for All-lands Restoration
Panel: Cutting Edge Technologies for Sale Layout and Implementation (Part 1)
Topics: Virtual Boundaries and Discernable Boundaries, Integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in daily forest operations: from cruising to regeneration survey, Using Avenza PDF Maps in Concert with Cut-To-Length Harvesting Systems, and Planning Ground-based Harvest Operations to Limit Soil Impacts
Reception and Featured Speaker
5:30 PMBreakfast
7:00 AMFeatured Speaker
Panel: Forest Treatments for Riparian Health
Topics: Hydrology Concerns for Treatments in Riparian Areas, Riparian Thinning Using Cut-to-Length, and Riparian Thinning: An Example from the Deschutes National Forest
Panel: Managing Good Fire at the Right Place and Right Time (Part 1)
Topics: Managed Fire: A tool or a Hazard? An in-depth discussion with the Lakeview Forest Stewardship Group.
Panel: Managing Good Fire at the Right Place and Right Time (Part 2)
Topics: Prescribed Fire at Scale and Contracting Prescribed Fire
Panel: Bridges and Water Crossings: Challenges and Opportunities
Topics: Roads, Crossings and Culverts, Low-cost approaches to Low-Volume Roads and Water Crossings, Prioritizing Roads, Crossings & Culverts with NetMap.
Lunch: A View from All Sides: Perspectives on Implementation Efficiencies, Challenges, & Opportunities
Summary Statements from Forest Service Staff, Collaborative Member and Industry Representative discussed over Lunch
11:45 AMAdjourn
Have a safe trip home!
1:00 PMBreakfast
7:00 AMFeatured Speaker: Do Collaboratives Matter in Litigation?
with Susan Jane Brown
Panel: New Opportunities for Conventional Harvesting Systems and Biomass Utilization
Topics: Cut-to-Length vs Whole Tree Logging Systems, Biomass Utilization: Harvesting and Markets, and Managing Slash: Needs, Challenges, Opportunities
Panel: Steep Terrain Harvesting Systems
Topics: Skyline Logging: New Approaches to Traditional Systems, Steep Slope Logging, and Tethered Assist
Lunch
with optional practical application activity
12:30 PMFacilitated Conversations on the morning’s topics
Continue the discussion: The key elements of making forest restoration work economically viable
Panel: A Grounded Approach: Soil Considerations for Harvesting
Topics: Soil Matters: Improving Forest Landscape Planning and Management for Diverse Objectives with Soils Information and Expertise, Soil Resources Management for Logging in Steep Slopes, Interaction of Steep Slope Equipment with Soil Resources
Panel: Cutting Edge Technologies for Sale Layout and Implementation (Part 2)
Topics: Tablet applications for Implementing Silvicultural Prescriptions, Forest Restoration in the Tablet & Smart Phone era: Marking and Realtime Monitoring using the ICO APP, and Non-contact tree measurement for forest harvesting machines
Panel: Designation Methods: Lessons Learned
Topics: Alternative Contracting Methods and Implementation Strategies for Commercial Harvest, DxP and DxD
Facilitated Conversation on Afternoon Topics
or optional practical application activity
Dinner on your own
Enjoy one of the many area dining options at your leisure.
6:00 PM
