Soil compaction effects of forwarding and its relationship with 6- and 8-wheel drive machines

Abstract

The certification and training of professional loggers appear to be increasingly common phenomena throughout the United States. As a result of West Virginia's Logging Sediment Control Act, enacted in 1992, the state's mandatory logger certification program has 1) provided loggers with training in Best Management Practices (BMPs) to control sediment from logging ; and 2) assigned responsibility to loggers if non-compliance with BMPs is discovered. Additional training in first aid and chain-saw safety are also required as part of the state's certification process. A survey designed to elicit information on both the costs associated with logger certification training as well as training effectiveness was mailed to all licensed loggers in West Virginia. The average certification training cost per worker was $1,617.69. Loggers considered first-aid training to be the most worthwhile of the three training sessions, while the highest level of dissatisfaction was with chain-saw safety training. Although half of the resppndents agreed that the logger certification program was fine the way it is, loggers were more critical of the recertification program. When data were partitioned based on respondents' years of logging experience, the most experienced loggers were found to be least satisfied with both programs.