Welcome to Virginia Tech's Department of Forestry Cable Yarding / Cable Logging Web Site. Cable yarding has a long history, and was popularized in both central Europe and the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the last century as a versatile and effective timber extraction system.

Basic components of a cable yarder system include the yarder itself, a carriage and numerous accessories to form a specific rigging option that will allow the system to work. The US Forest Service has an online glossery of terminology.

This website is intended to be informative and promote cable yarding as an environmentally friendly, physically feasible and socially acceptable timber extraction option. A short presentation of how it works is available. It also has a number of research reports in pdf format that can be downloaded, as well as links to key research organizations and equipment manufacturers.