The mechanization of timber harvesting depends on several factors such as the type of forest, wood species, management methods, terrain and climatic conditions. In several countries, felling trees and motor-manual timber processing are still very common. The most common method for extracting timber in Italy, particularly in the South, is using farm tractors equipped with forestry equipment. The use of forestry skidders is still largely unknown.To meet the world’s population’s growing need for wood and wood-derived products, forestry mechanization is undergoing a boost, lea ding several forestry companies to improve and innovate the equipment of their forestry machinery or to adopt more efficient other logging systems. This modernization has led to the appearance of new forestry machines capable of increasing productivity and safety at work. This investigation focused on the potential benefits of introducing a more mechanized and purpose-built extraction system, particularly an Equus 175N skidder. The objective of the study is to analyse working times and productivity during the skidding operation in Mediterranean forests. The study was conducted in the Aspromonte National Park. Two sites with different orographic conditions were monitored and a thinning operation was conducted at both sites. Numerous cycles were monitored for each site and logs were extracted using the Cut-To-Length system. The load was moved with the Equus 175N skidder and for each skidding cycle, the times and number of logs were recorded. The results showed that the productivity is significantly higher than with traditional extraction techniques, and the extraction costs that follow are quite competitive.