Annual commercial poplar wood production in Turkey is about 3.6 million cubic meters, half of which comes from hybrid poplar I-214. The poplar plantation areas of Turkey are 70% of the poplar plantation areas of the Near and Middle Eastern countries, and nearly 5% of the world. In this study, unit times of standard operations were investigated in poplar nurseries and plantations in which new mechanical technology was applied and compared with traditional methods. Analyses of unit times were made on 11 treatments for poplar nurseries and nine treatments for poplar plantations; some new methods are also recommended. Mechanization methods based on new technologies give promising results in poplar nurseries and plantations. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.