Eco Naud Exploitation Forestiere is a harvesting and silviculture operation managed by Sylvain and Francis Naud, with their operations based from Sylvain’s home, just outside the Village of Saint-Raymond, about an hour northwest of Quebec City, on the Sainte-Anne River.

The topography of the Saint-Raymond region is a mix of flat alluvial plains that currently supports cash cropping grain, soy and potato and corn, along with hilly terrain and river valleys wooded with a mix of softwood and hardwoods. The region also hosts vibrant maple sugar operations.

Sylvain began contract harvesting in 1991 with a chainsaw and farm tractor, supplying regional mills. Francis, Sylvain’s son, began his forestry career following Sylvain to logging operations, primarily on private woodlots. Francis went on to complete a heavy equipment operator course and was employed on various forestry operations, public and industrial lands.

In 2018, the Naud’s bought their first mechanized harvester, and Francis trained himself to operate it.

The Naud’s most recent harvesting kit consisted of a Prentice harvester with a Log Max 7000 Extreme head, and a John Deere 1010 forwarder.

In recent years, their conventional harvest team has been used to handle contracts harvesting wood on private woodlots in the region, as well as contracting to harvest woodland that was converted to agriculture production.

According to Francis, the family business became increasingly aware of the requests from woodlot owners for thinning services, to plantations and stands where natural regeneration had been pre-commercially thinned. Francis explained that Eco Naud had undertaken some first commercial thinning with the Prentice/John Deere team but the results were not completely satisfactory as a result of the wide trails and actual or perceived occurrence of track ruts.

“We were receiving a lot of requests for first commercial thinnings in plantations, but a lot of the landowners looked at our equipment and then declined, because they felt the harvest equipment would cause rutting and root damage,” commented Francis.

A solution to the big equipment challenge came when their Log Max rep Anthony Pelletier let them know that Log Max Quebec Inc. had become a dealer for Malwa Forest AB, which manufactures small scale harvesting and forwarding equipment in Sweden, specifically designed for commercial thinning.

Smaller thinning equipment results in less area required for trails compared to larger harvesters and forwarders. Smaller and lighter machines have less ground pressure resulting in less rutting (which is actually a chargeable Forestry Act offence in Sweden). Less ground pressure also means less damage to the roots of crop trees in commercial thinnings, and is also very important for thinning and management work for maple sugar bush development.

Smaller trails mean more trees remaining, to develop and grow into larger timber and contribute to carbon sequestration. Smaller trails also result in quicker crown closure, and reducing the susceptibility to windthrow in the thinned stands.

After attending a Malwa demo near Log Max Quebec’s headquarters at Causapscal, Quebec, Sylvain and Francis came away convinced that the small Malwa would work well to treat the potential: the many thousands of acres of plantations in their region. Following their intuition, they purchased their Malwa 560 Combi machine in 2021.

Their six-wheeled Malwa 560 Combi machine is equipped with a Log Max 2000T harvesting head (max 41 cm cutting capacity) in harvester mode. Log bunks are added to the rear frame and the harvester head is exchanged for a log grapple to work as a forwarder with a Grippen 020 grapple on the crane. The Combi’s crane is a Cranab FC45 with 6 metres of reach.

The Naud’s also purchased a Malwa forestry trailer, which increases forwarder capacity when operating on long forwarding hauls on smooth trails.

Francis says that with a bit of experience, it takes about 15 minutes to switch the Malwa 560 Combi between harvester and forwarder modes.

The six-wheel 560 Combi weighs only 5700 kgs, and is 1.95 metres wide. It is rated to carry a net load of 5500 kgs. Power comes from a Cat C28 engine rated at 75 horsepower. Transmission is a Bosch-Rexroth hydro-mechanical unit which functions separate from the works’ hydraulic system, which is a load-sensing axial piston pump, also by Bosch-Rexroth.

As Eco Naud began to take on its first commercial thinnings with the Malwa 560 Combi, and as woodlot owners saw the lightweight machine, the requests for commercial thinning services continued to grow.

As familiarity with the Combi increased, Sylvain and Francis evaluated their enterprise and decided there was a good opportunity for expansion—and decided to build on the commercial thinning business, and made a deal to purchase a new Malwa 980 harvester.

The 980 came in a double bogie concept, with more horsepower, longer reach, stronger crane and a larger Log Max 3000T head, and went on Eco Naud operations in April 2024.

The 980 harvester weighs in at 9800 kg., with a width of 2.2 metres. The 980 is equipped with a Kesla 875 parallel crane with a indexator rotator, which provides 7.6 metres of reach, and sports the Log Max 3000T harvesting head with maximum cut capacity of 52 cm.

Power for the 980 harvester comes from a Cat engine rated at 173 horsepower. The transmission is hydro-mechanical, manufactured by Bosch-Rexroth. Work hydraulic pumps are 220 and 145 litres per minute variable load sensing axial piston design by Bosch-Rexroth. Both the 560 machines and the 980 harvester utilize IQAN-based control systems with touch screen.

With the new 980 handling harvesting, the Combi now spends a lot more time dressed as a forwarder, teamed with the 980 harvester. Francis explained that the Combi continues to work occasionally as a harvester, for certain jobs.

Fuel consumption for the Malwa 980 harvester is eight litres per hour, while the Malwa 560 Combi consumes about three litres per hour forwarding and about six litres per hour as a harvester.

Francis pointed out that the size of their commercial thinning operations on private woodlots range from one hectare to around 36 hectares. Operations for harvest and commercial thinning are, for the most part, within an hour commute of Eco Naud’s home base.

On a recent visit to the Eco Naud operation and to see the Malwa team in action, they were working on a Naud family-owned woodlot, targeting spruce and Balsam fir which was in decline. As advertised, the Malwa team operated with narrow trails, leaving a mixture of softwood and hardwood trees from emerging seedlings to healthy maturing hardwoods and softwoods. It was obvious that crown closure would extend to shade the trails after only a couple years’ growth.

A visit to a second woodlot owned by Sylvain featured commercial thinning in red pine and spruce plantations completed earlier in the year. The woodlot was formerly owned by Université Laval, and used as a research site. The commercial thinning exhibited very sensitive work, with virtually no damage to crop trees, and the narrow trails exhibited no evidence of rutting. Crowns of crop trees are expected to close over the trails with one or two growing seasons.

Eco Naud’s thinning and harvesting operations ship softwood and hardwood logs to the Dion et Fils sawmill in Saint Raymond, as well as eight-foot studwood logs down to a four-inch minimum diameter. Hardwood pulpwood is marketed to the Feuille D’erable charcoal plant in Ste-Christine d’Auvergne, near Saint Raymond. Francis explained that they lack a viable market for softwood pulpwood in their region.

Eco Naud operates day shift only, and are training new operators. Francis explained that with about three years of commercial thinning booked ahead, he and Sylvain are consequently seriously considering adding another Malwa harvester to their team.

With the recent major fires in northern Quebec, and the resulting shift of conservation goals to standing live forests, the forest industry in Quebec is expected to look for more wood supply from private woodlots, and as a result increasing the demand for commercial thinning to grow more timber.

Search for low impact logging equipment led to development of Malwa

The Malwa forest harvesting machines came about through the inspiration of Malwa founder and designer Magnus Wallin.

Wallin had a career that was built around inspection and certification of cranes used in industries in his native Sweden.

After Wallin began managing his own woodlot, he began looking for harvesting equipment which would have a low ground impact, and be small enough to only require narrow trails.

Anthony Pelletier is with Log Max Quebec Inc., a dealer for Malwa Forest AB, and he explained that Wallin initially invested in a small Asian-built utility tractor, removing the steering axle and attaching a forestry trailer. His early efforts determined the Asian equipment was not reliable, and after a number of mechanical failures, abandoned the effort.

Wallin then decided that in order to get a reliable and productive machine, he should build one from the ground up—and thus the adventure in building the Malwa equipment began.

Malwa Forest AB was established in 2009 by Magnus and Madeleine Wallin. After building the first Malwa 360 forwarder, Wallin soon had plans for the Malwa 460 forwarder model, with larger tires and other improvements.

In 2011, he launched the Malwa 460 as a combi forwarder and harvester, with a Cat 60 horsepower engine and Keto head. In 2013, the Malwa 560 launched with a Cat 75 horsepower engine and Log Max 928 head.

Innovations in 2016-2017 included Malwa-designed die cast bogie, improved mid-joint, improved cab climate control and software and data collection.

In 2020, Malwa introduced the fourth generation of the Malwa 560, making it available as harvester, forwarder and as a combi model. In 2022, Malwa introduced the double bogie 980 harvester.