Survival test of RFID UHF tags in timber harvesting operations

Traceability of wood products is more and more relying on high technology systems. Among them the Radio-Frequency IDentification with Ultra High Frequency (RFID UHF ) tags are probably the most flexible and promising tools. Several studies address their use in timber logistics, but the possibility to mark standing trees and maintain intact the information along a whole-tree extraction system is still not explored. Under this perspective one of the main challenges is the capacity of UHF RFID tags to survive the harsh conditions of timber harvesting. Different tag models and different placement positions on the tree may lead to diverse ratio of tags arriving intact up to the landing. Particularly extracting operations may play a major role in damaging or removing the tags from the trees. In the present study, two tag models and two fixing modalities were compared during three commercial hauling and one transport operation in mountain conditions. Over a total of 239 tracked tags, just 5 were lost, proving a good reliability for this traceability system. This preliminary result will serve for addressing the electronic tree/log marking method in the frame of the project SLOPE, co-funded by the EC.