Forestry machinery comprises specialised machines for professional timber harvesting and forest management. The mechanisation of forestry work over recent decades has led to the development of high-performance machines that cause minimal soil compaction.
The main types are harvesters (felling and processing machines with a grapple unit for felling, delimbing, measuring and cross-cutting), forwarders (tractors with trailers and loading cranes for timber transport within the stand), skidders (tractors for moving whole logs), specialised forestry tractors with winches, as well as log splitters, chippers and timber skidding trailers.
Common manufacturers include John Deere, Komatsu Forest, Ponsse, Eco Log, Tigercat, Logset, Sampo Rosenlew, HSM and Welte, and for log splitters and chippers, Posch, BGU and STIHL.
Forestry machinery is used in forestry operations, by contractors, in sawmills with their own timber harvesting operations, in energy wood processing, and in landscape maintenance and forest track construction.