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[Quiller]

So, this is not anything that I've tried, but it seems like an interesting idea.  One issue with logging is that while it is renewable, saplings can be trampled on, killed and become dead wood clutter instead of usable trees.

A possible way to minimize this would be to use traffic zones.  Set up paths set to high traffic to go out into the forest and branching off a bit.  Set the rest of the forest to lower traffic settings or forbidden.  This should cause dwarves to follow the set paths until they get close to the target tree, then make a beeline for the target tree once they get close.  This should concentrate most of the foot traffic to specific zones and make it more likely that saplings will be able to grow up off that path.  You might be able to help even further if you use these paths to divide your lands up into zones, and only log in one zone at a time rotating through the zones.

There is an additional advantage of this.  If you know that most of your time your outdoor dwarves will be following set paths you can use those areas for guard towers, traps, military patrols and be more likely to be near where a dwarf would be surprised by enemies.  Or at least increase the amount of time that the dwarf will be travelling near protection.  (Unfortunately, I doubt that the dwarf will take traffic zones into account when running screaming away from the enemy, so we can't expect that the dwarf will lure the enemy onto the path).

Presumably these paths will also affect how your hunters and herbalists do their jobs, and in the case of the herbalists, you may want to designate plant gathering in the same area as the logging so that their trampling gets cycled as well.  (Though most likely by the time you are being this organized about logging, you are finished with gathering).

This can also be useful for tower cap farming, and while you are less likely to encounter enemies there, it has the added benefit of decreasing the trampling of spider webs that can be harvested.

Of course, at the moment this is all theoretical, but I see no reason it wouldn't work.

[Brian]

I do this. I have an above ground fort and need every bit of wood I can get.

[Haven]

Simple, sensible. Why not?

[Peewee]

I don't care about trampling cave spider webs... my stocks menu currently shows over 900 of them. (mainly cause I 'exploratory mined' the bottom layer or two AND have a locked door'd off tower cap farm)

I'm more worried about those damn spiders trampling my saplings... it's only been about four months and it's mostly web...

[Teeto_K]

My walled in tree farms in the topsoil level all use this: A 2 tile wide path around the perimeter of high traffic, with the middle designated as low instead. Of course, the only people using these areas are fishers and loggers and herbalists, but it's the little things that count!