A new entertainment show called “Duellen” will start on Swedish public television in August 2017. The idea behind the show is that two competitors run duels in different crafts. One of the duels will be who cuts down 10 trees fastest? 10 chainsaw loggers or one tree harvester machine?

Within the forestry segment in Sweden, this duel has gained a lot of interest. And it is understandable due to the facts that these two technics, chainsaws and tree harvesters, are working next to each other on a daily basis in the forest, doing the same job but in a different way. Moreover, there is a historical aspect to it as well, in the eighties tree harvesters and single grip harvester heads made their entrance in the forest and made many manual chainsaw loggers unemployed.

The big buzz right now is how the producers of the TV-show will setup and angle this particular duel. There are many questions:

– Will there be very big trees that the tree harvester will have a struggle with?

– Is it only felling of 10 trees, or are limbing included?

– The machine has to cut 10 trees, where the chainsaw loggers have one tree each. Is there a distance to drive for the machine between each tree?

Will a group of chainsaw loggers have a chance?

One thing is for sure though, on a daily basis, the tree harvester is far more effective than 10 manual loggers with chainsaws. That is why the manual loggers were outcompeted in the eighties. If we look at a, for example, an CTL harvester made for final felling they often have a contract that states that they should cut around 100 trees per hour, 8 hours a day, 220 days a year.

Manual work with chainsaws is however not dead as a profession. Trees can be difficult to fell, they can be overgrown and grow in difficult terrain. Here, a tree harvester will have no chance against 10 manual loggers with chainsaws. We´ll see how the producer of the TV-show will decide on this matter.

The entertainment show will have the premiere in August 2017 on Swedish television. Forestry.com will have you updated on how this duel goes.