Evaluation of Post-Fire Salvage Logging Operations In Terms of Environmental Damages and The Timber Industry's Needs

Salvage logging practices generally aim to recover trees damaged by various natural disasters such as forest fires, floods, storms, disease, and insect outbreaks to the industry by minimizing the loss of economic value. Wildland fires are the main natural phenomena that significantly affect both the wood industry economically and the forest ecosystem environmentally. These practices may reduce the economic value of fire-damaged trees, change the type of wood produced (logs, poles, industrial wood, firewood, etc.), or cause direct or indirect environmental damage to the forest ecosystem. Post-fire management is usually based on the felling and extracting activities that have been damaged as quickly as possible. However, there are various concerns about both meeting the expectations of the industry and the minimizing of environmental damage associated with post-fire applications. Salvage logging practices should be planned by considering the expectations of the industry and environmental impacts, determining the damage levels on the trees, and deciding the harvesting time and the harvest techniques to be used. In this study, it was aimed to plan for post-fire salvage logging considering the needs of the industry and to assess the potential environmental impacts.