Material and Methods
Study Area
Kahramanmaras (Central) Forest Enterprise Directorate within the border of
Kahramanmaras Forest Regional Directorate was selected as study area. The
study area is located within 38.05°-37.17° North and 36.45°-37.60° East
coordinates. The area covers about 615247.65 ha land where the average
elevation and ground slope is about 1066.27m and 15.63%, respectively. The main
tree species in the area include Pinus brutia (Brutian Pine), Pinus nigra (Black
Pine), Cedrus libani (Cedar), and Querqus (Oak). In the study, the optimum routes
were investigated for 10 different harvesting units, considering two different forest
depots including Tekerek and Sucati (Figure 1).