Here are a list of commonly used terms in the survival and forestry community.
A
Abiotic – Nonliving components of the environment.
Adaptive Management – Driving forest management with scientific research. This requires excellent monitoring, and feed back loops to quickly put new knowledge into practice on the ground.
Agroforestry – The combined production of both crops and trees to maximize water efficiency.
Alevin: The life stage of a salmonid between egg and fry. An alevin looks like a fish with a huge pot belly which is the remaining egg sac.
Algae – Any group of lower plants having chlorophyll but no vascular system.
Allochthonous – Organic material composed of leaves and woody debris.
ALSC – The American Lumber Standards Committee certifies inspection agencies that treating plants use to conduct frequent quality control inspections.
Anadromous – Fish that hatch and live the first part of their lives in fresh water; then migrate to the ocean to spend their adult lives, which may be as short as six months or as long as seven years; then return to freshwater to spawn.
Angiosperm – Any class of flowering plants characterized by seeds that are fully enclosed by fruits.
Aquifers – Porous, water-saturated layers of sand, gravel or bed rock through which groundwater flows that can yield an economically significant amount of water. A large concentration of underground water.
Arsenic Pentavalent Arsenate – The kind used in wood preservatives, not to be confused with commercially produced Trivalent Arsonic, which is not used in any wood preservative. Pentavalent Arsenate occurs naturally in the soil, water, air, plants, and in most living creatures – including humans.
Artificial Regeneration – Establishing a new forest by planting seedlings or by direct seeding (as opposed to natural regeneration).
Avoiders – Plants that have little adaptability to fire.
B
Best Management Practices (BMP) – A forestry practice or combination of practices, determined by a state to be the most effective means of preventing or reducing the amount of nonpoint source pollution in order to protect streams and water quality. Some BMP’s are defined by the state’s Forest Practices Acts and their accompanying rules and regulations.
Bethell Process – Developed in 1938, the application of an initial vacuum followed by the impregnation of creosote formed a basis for the present wood-treating industry.
Biogeoclimatic Classification – The delineation of biotic regions or zones on the basis of vegetation, soils, topography, and climate.
Biological Diversity – The variety and complexity of species that are present and that interact in an ecosystem, plus the relative ubundance of each.
Biomass – The weight of living organisms. Forests are biomass factories, producing plant, animal, and microbial biomass.
Biosphere – the part of the Earth and its atmosphere in which living things exist.
Biota – All living animals and plants.
Birth Rate – The average number of births per year per 1,000 population at midyear. Also known as crude birth rate.
C
Cambium – A single layer of cells between the woody part of the tree and the bark. Division of these cells results in diameter growth of the tree through formation of wood cells (xylem) and inner bark (phloem).
Canopy – The forest cover of leaves, branches, and foliage formed by tree crowns. There may be several canopy layers.
Cellulose – This is the primary material of wood cell walls and it is 100% non-soluble glucose. Cellulose is a polymer chain carbohydrate (i.e. chains of sugar molecules, or polysaccharide) and is the main constituent of the cell walls of all plants, accounting for about 50% of the dry weight of wood. Also, the basic raw material (chemical compound) used in papermaking. It is the most widely distributed organic (carbon-based) compound. It is not water soluble and is extracted by pulping.
Certification – Third party certification might reassure the end consumer of wood products that the wood was produced and processed in a ‘sustainable’ manner, without damaging forest ecosystems. Certification tells the consumer that the wood is coming from a well managed or ‘sustainable’ forest operation where good stewardship is practiced.
CIS – Consumer Information Sheet, guidelines for handling treated wood, available to the consumer at retail outlets where treated lumber is sold.
Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA) – A water-borne solution most commonly used on lumber, plywood, and timbers. This preservative protects against insects (primarily termites), fungi, and marine borers. CCA is the most widely used of all pressure-treating wood preservatives.
Clay – Soil that is very hard when dry, but can be shaped when wet; most often found near a water source.
Clearcutting – In a clearcut, all the trees in a block are harvested so that a new crop of sun-loving (i.e. shade intolerant) trees can get off to a fast start. Clearcutting also facilitates mechanical planting. In some stands of trees a clearcut follows one or two “selective cuts” which thin out the trees that compete for sunlight, water, and nutrients. Today, clearcuts are smaller in size and are designed to blend in with the landscape. Many animals, such as deer, depend on clearcuts – which provide excellent forage. Clearcuts are prohibited next to streams and lakes which require buffer zones with selective harvesting, if any.
Climax Forest – A forest community that represents the final stage of natural forest succession for its locality, i.e. for its environment.
Clinometer – A device used in measuring the angle of elevation from eye level to the top of a tree. This instrument is used to help calculate tree height.
Coated – a paper covered with a suspension of china clay, pigment and adhesive.
Common Law – Most groundwater use is based on common law, which holds that the subsurface water belongs to whoever owns the land above it. This means landowners can withdraw as much as they want to use on their land.
Community – All organisms in a particular habitat that are bound together by food chains and other interrelationships.
Component Method – A method of estimating or projecting population change (fertility, mortality and migration are used).
Condensation – The formation of a liquid from a vapor.
Coniferous – Cone-bearing trees having needles or scale-like leaves, usually evergreen, and producing wood known commercially as ‘softwoods.’
Conservation – The sustainable use of forest resources in a manner that does not degrade the collective resource values of a region over the long term.
Consumers – organisms that feed on other organisms to sustain life.
Contraception – Deliberate use of methods to prevent conception or pregnancy. Also known as family planning.
Contraceptive Prevalence Rate – The percentage of currently married women of reproductive age (15-49) who use a method of contraception.
Core Academic Curriculum – The National Education Commission on Time and Learning defines the following as the core academic curriculum that all students should take during the academic day: English and language arts, mathematics, science, civics, geography, history, the arts, and foreign languages.
Core Competencies – The portfolio of skills that make you good at what you do. Your core competencies should remain constant and define your organization. Core competencies include things like: teaching, marketing, trading, manufacturing, and leadership.
Creative Tension – The natural tension created by the tug of war between our current reality and our vision of the future. Our vision pulls us up, and our current reality pull us down. People who learn how to work with creative tension, learn how to use the energy it generates to move more reliably toward their visions.
Creosote – A distillate derived from the raw material coal tar, which is a by-product of the coking of bituminous coal used in the making of steel.
Critical Issues – Internal or external issues which may have a severe impact on your ability to execute a strategic plan. As an example, proper incentives might encourage conservation, long range planning and ecosystem management.
Crown fire – A fire burning into the crowns of the vegetation, generally associated with an intense understory fire.
Crust – outer most layer of the earth comprised of soil rock.
Cumulative Effect – The sum total of all impacts affecting anadromous fish.
D
DBH – The diameter of a tree as measured at breast height. Standard dbh is measured at 4.5 feet above the ground.
Death Rate – The average number of deaths per year per 1,000 population at midyear. Also known as crude death rate.
Decay – Decomposition of wood by wood-destroying fungi.
Deciduous – Term applied to trees, commonly broadleaf, that usually shed their leaves annually. It is an adaptation to prevent excessive water loss by transpiration when water is scarce. Also known commercially as ‘hardwoods.’
Decomposers – organisms that digest dead organisms to sustain life.
De-inking – a series of washing and floatation processes in which water and/or soap-like chemicals called surfactants remove the ink from recycled paper.
Delimber – An excavator based machine with an attachment which removes a tree’s limbs and bucks the top off the tree at the landing. A log loader then places the processed logs on a truck.
Density – Number of organisms per unit of space.
Design Flaw – Permitting standards to vary among students while keeping time constant instead of providing each student the time to reach high standards.
E
Eco – This prefix come from the Greek “Oikos” which means house. In the original context, ecology refers to the house we live in and economy refers to how we manage that house.
Ecological Succession – The changes, over time, in the structure and function of an ecosystem. When no previous vegetation exists on a site, the process is called primary succession. When a site supported vegetation previously but was disturbed, the process is called secondary succession.
Ecology – The study of ecosystems. As a science ecology makes no value judgments.
Ecosystem – A natural system which functions as a unit. It can be anything from a rotting log to the entire planet. It is assemblage of living organisms together with their non-living environment in a particular area.
Education – The process of training and developing the knowledge, skill, mind, character, etc., especially by formal schooling.
Effluent – the liquid “leftovers” that result from manufacturing pulp and paper, including chemical compounds and wood fiber fragments.
Endangered Species – Species that are likely to become extinct.
Endurers – Plants that re-sprout following a fire or endure the effects of fire.
Environment – The sum of all external conditions and influences, living and nonliving, that effect the development and, ultimately, the survival of an organism or group of organisms.
Enzymes – Chemicals that break starch (complex carbohydrates) down to usable glucose. Used by insects and fungi to break down wood.
Ephemeral Stream – A stream that flows only during or shortly after a storm event.
ESEA – Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1964. Was an attempt to identify youngsters most in need of help and provide special programs for them (i.e. Head Start).
Estuary – A coastal body of water that has a connection with salt and fresh water sources.
Evaporation – The process of changing from a liquid to a vapor.
Evapo-transpiration – The total loss of water by evaporation from soil and from water bodies and transpiration from vegetation.
Even-aged Management – The silvicultural management of a stand where all trees in an area are harvested to produce a new stand that consists of one age class of trees. Even-aged management practices include clearcutting, seed-tree, and shelterwood methods.
Exotic Species – A species that is not native to the ecosystem; also known as invader species.
Extractives – Chemical “wastes” which are stored in the heartwood of trees providing natural durability
F
Fasteners – The hardware (e.g. nails, screws, bolts, joist hangers) used to secure treated wood. Since treated lumber is used for durability, fasteners should be hot-dipped galvanized or stainless steel, especially with water borne preservatives, which contain corrosive salt.
Feller-Buncher – A machine which fells trees using a mechanical shear or a disc saw as an attachment. A Feller-Buncher may accumulate several trees before creating just the right size bunch for a grapple skidder to take to the landing. A mechanical delimber or a whole tree chipper might be waiting at the landing to further process the tree.
Fiber – in papermaking this refers to the cellulose fiber. Softwood trees produce long cellulose fibers that are good for strength and hardwood trees produce short fibers that are good for smoothness. Fibers are often blended to create the ideal characteristics for a given paper.
Fire regime – The combination of fire frequency, predictability, intensity, seasonality, and extent of fire in an ecosystem.
Fire Triangle – The three components (heat, fuel, and oxygen) necessary for a fire to take place and for the fire to keep burning.
Fishery – One or more stocks of fish which can be treated as a unit for purposes of conservation and management, plus any fishing for such stocks.
Fixation – The chemical process in which the preservative metals in water-borne solution react with and bond to wood fiber molecules.
Food Chain – The transfer of food energy from organisms in one nutritional level to those in another.
Forest – An ecosystem dominated by trees, with a unique combination of plants, animals, microbes, soil, and climate.
Foresters – Foresters manage forests for the maintenance and reoccurrence of desirable conditions. What is desirable is determined by social, biological, and economic considerations.
Forestry – The art, science, and practice of managing forest landscapes to provide a sustained production of a variety of goods and services for society.
Forwarder – A machine with a crane which can load logs onto its chassis and piggy-back them to a road where it can sort and pile them or load them directly onto a truck.
Fry – A juvenile salmonid that has absorbed its egg sac and is rearing in the stream.
Fungi – Simple plant-like organisms that lack chlorophyll. They obtain their nutrition from living on or in other organisms (parasitically), from living with other organisms (symbiotically), or by breaking down dead organic materials (saprophytically). An example are the microscopic mycorrhiza which live off the tree, while fixing nitrogen for the tree. Mushrooms, molds, and yeast are included in this group. Feel free to visit the Mycological Society of America. (A new window will open)
G
Gap Analysis – Defining and analyzing the gap between your current reality and your vision of the future. Your mission is to close this gap by selecting the best strategies.
Green manure – The nutrient rich, green foliage that can be returned to the site as a natural fertilizer.
Groundwater – Precipitation which infiltrates the ground and fills the pores in rocks and soil.
Growth Rate – The average annual percent change in population resulting from a surplus (or deficit) of births over deaths and the balance of migrants entering and leaving a country.
Guiding Principles – The “core values” which ensure the rightness of your direction. While only a vision can give you direction, values ensure that you are on the right path.
Gymnosperm – Any class of seed plants, mostly trees such as conifers, that produce naked seeds not enclosed in fruit.
H
Habitat – The area that provides an organism with adequate food, water, shelter, and living space, and/or the conditions of that environment including the soil, vegetation, water, and food.
Habitat Conservation Plan – As a provision of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, a private company can submit an HCP to the federal government. It commits the company to a single or multi-species plan for a set period of time. If the plan is approved, the company has a more predictable operating environment based on incentives vs. regulation. The government has approved eight HCP’s while 12 others covering more than 5 million acres wait approval.
Hardwood – A deciduous or broadleaf tree; also applies to the wood from such trees.
Harvester – A purpose-built machine with a head (attachment) for felling and processing trees into log lengths. Sometimes the processing head itself is referred to as a Harvester.
Hemicellulose – This wood cell material is made from chains of sugar molecules and accounts for about 20% of the dry weight of wood.
High-grading – The removal of only the best trees from the stand, often resulting in a poor-quality residual stand.
Humus – The dark organic part of soil formed from decaying plant and animal matter, often called topsoil.
Hydric Soils – Saturated soils that typically have little oxygen content.
Hydrocarbon – An organic compound containing only carbon and hydrogen, often occurring in petroleum, natural gas, and coal.
Hydrophytes – Water-tolerant plants characteristic of wetlands.
I
I
Incising – Perforating the wood surface with small slits to improve the penetration and effectiveness of the preservatives. Not necessary with treated Southern Yellow Pine, Ponderosa Pine, and Red Pine.
Indigenous – Pertaining to plants or animals that are native to a particular region or country.
Infant Mortality Rate – The number of deaths to infants under one year of age in a given hear per 1,000 live births in the same year.
Inorganic – Composed of matter that is not animal or vegetable; not having the organized structure of living things.
Intermittent Stream – A stream that flows primarily during the wet season but has little or no flow during other seasons.
Invaders – Plants which invade a site after fire.
Invertebrates – An animal lacking a backbone. In streams, commonly encountered invertebrates include crayfish, mussels, worms, and insects.
J
Juku – Private Japanese tutorial schools that supplement school learning, offer remedial and enrichment experiences, and prepare students for university examinations.
K
KDAT – Wood that is Kiln-Dried after Treatment. Pressure-treating with water-borne preservatives adds moisture to the wood, which can be removed by kiln-drying.
Keystone Species – Species that play roles affecting many other organisms in the ecosystem.
Kraft – a very strong type of wrapping paper made from a special type of chemically treated wood pulp. The Kraft (Sulfate) pulping process produces the best quality softwood pulp. Generally brown natural kraft but can be bleached white. Kraft is the German word for strength.
K-Strategist – Species that produce a few, often large offspring, but invest a great deal of time and energy to ensure that most of the offspring will reach reproductive age.
L
Leadership – The quality which enables a person to articulate the current reality and a vision for the future. The ability to mobilize a community of interest behind the vision. People will follow leaders where they wouldn’t go on their own.
Legacy – How you will be remembered, and how your organization will be remembered. Writing your own legacy is an excellent way to come up with a vision statement. Once you know how you want to be remembered, you have a vision and can go to work on making it a reality. Obviously, you don’t want to wait too long to do this.
Life Cycle – The phases, changes, or stages through which an organism passes during its lifetime.
Lignin – a polymer that binds cellulose together to make wood. The stiffening material inside wood cell walls that gives strength and rigidity. Allows trees to grow tall and out-compete other plants for sunlight. Accounts for about 30% of the dry weight of wood. Lignin is removed in the pulping and bleaching processes to brighten the paper and prevent yellowing.
Limnology – The study of the biological and chemical properties of fresh water.
Loam – soil containing a mixture of clay, silt, sand and humus.
Logotherapy – Logos is a Greek word that denotes “meaning.” According to logotherapy, striving to find meaning is the primary motivational force in man.
M
Magnet Schools – In contrast to comprehensive neighborhood schools, Magnet Schools are organized by academic or vocational theme and are open to all comers.
Mann, Horace – Educator, considered the father of American public education, who saw a place where the sons and daughters of lawyers and doctors would mix with the children of farmers and bricklayers. As administrator of the Massachusetts public schools system, he made reforms that served as a model for the entire nation.
Mantle – the layer of the earth between the crust and core.
Mechanized – Harvesting and processing timber with machines, reducing manual labor on the ground.
Milt – Salmon sperm
Mission Statement – An explicit statement of how you are going to make your vision of the future a reality. If your vision is to become one of the greatest football teams in history, then your mission might be to win the Super Bowl year after year.
Moisture Content – The weight of water in wood, expressed as a percent of the oven-dried weight of the wood.
Multiple-Use Management – The practice of managing forest resources for a variety of simultaneous uses and benefits including water, forage, wildlife habitat, wood, recreation, wilderness, and minerals.
Multi-track Year-round Schools – A plan in which students in one school are divided into three, four, or five groups, each with different schedules of instructional and vacation time. The time students spend in schools is staggered so that one group is on vacation while other groups are in school. Multi-track schools have been created primarily to deal with overcrowding and to make better use of facilities.
N
National Education Goals – Goals first adopted by the nation’s governors in 1989 for attainment by the year 2000. The goals have been incorporated into GOALS 2000: Education America Act of 1994.
NEPA – National Environmental Policy Act (1969) requires Environmental Assessments (EA) and Environmental Impact Statements (EIS). This act is the basic national charter for protection of the environment in the U.S.
Niche – the place and function of a species in an ecosystem.
Nonpoint Source Pollution – Water pollution created from a source that has no particular or permanent point of input.
Nonrenewable resource – a resource that is in limited supply and doesn’t have the capacity to be replaced through natural processes, at least not for many thousands of years. Fossil Fuels are a nonrenewable resource.
Nutrient – Substance required for growth and development. Plants, for example, need water and minerals to grow and reproduce.
O
Organic – Referring to or derived from living organisms; in chemistry, any compound containing carbon
Organic Matter – Decomposed plant and animal residues.
Old Growth – To most people “old growth” means big trees. The U.S. Forest Service definition is “a forest with trees 200 years or older, snags (standing dead trees), and down woody debris on the forest floor.”
Omnivore – animal organisms that can use plants and other animals as food sources.
Options – The different alternatives available for action. All options have strengths, weaknesses, risks and trade-offs. Informed decisions are made by understanding the options, and then choosing the best one. There are many options for running an organization or managing a forest ecosystem.
P
Pacific Salmon – Members of the Salmonidae family and Oncorhynchus genus including; Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, Pink and Chum. Also includes sea-run Steelhead and Cutthroat.
Paradigm – This is a Greek word for a model or a set of rules and regulations which set boundaries and tell you how to be successful within those boundaries. A mental model. We have paradigms for everything. Organizations are forests of paradigms. Leaders are capable of moving people from one paradigm to another.
Paradigm Effect – When ingrained paradigms filter incoming information, blinding people to the presence of new and better models. If the paradigm effect is strong enough it becomes “paradigm paralysis.”
Paradigm Shift – What happens when a new model comes along rendering the old model obsolete. In every shift there are winners and losers.
Parasite – An organism that lives on or in an organism of another species and derives nutrients from it.
Parr – Also known as a fingerling. A large juvenile salmonid, and between a fry and a smolt.
Perennial Stream – A stream that flows year round.
pH – The hydrogen-ion activity used in expressing both acidity and alkalinity on a scale whose values range from 0 to 14, with 7 representing neutrality. Numbers less than 7 represent increasing acidity, and numbers greater than 7, increasing alkalinity.
Phloem – A layer of plant tissue just inside the bark that transports food (dissolved nutrients) from the leaves to the stem and roots.
Photosynthesis – Complex process that takes place in cells of green plants. Radiant energy from the sun is used to combine carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) to produce oxygen (O) and carbohydrates (such as glucose) and other nutrient molecules.
Post Consumer – paper that has been recovered from the end consumer for recycling.
Prescribed fire – A fire ignited under known conditions of fuel, weather, and topography to achieve specific objectives.
Prescribed natural fire – A fire ignited by natural processes (usually lightning) which is allowed to burn within specified parameters of fuels, weather, and topography to achieve specific objectives.
Preservative – Any substance applied to wood that is effective in preventing the development and action of wood destroying fungi and insects.
ACA: Ammoniacal Copper Arsenates
ACC: Ammoniacal Copper Citrates
ACQ: Ammoniacal Copper Quaternary
ACZA: Ammoniacal Copper Zinc Arsenates
CCA: Chromated Copper Arsenates
PCP: Pentachlorophenol (Penta)
Pressure-Treating – The process by which preservatives are applied to wood products. The treatment involves forcing the preservative, and sometimes water sealant, deep into the cellular structure of the wood under pressure in a closed cylinder.
Prior Appropriation – The first-come first-serve approach to water use, most common in the western United States. The first user of water from a stream establishes a legal right for the continued use of the amount originally withdrawn. This use-it or lose-it approach offers no efficiency incentive.
Producers – organisms that use solar (green plants) or chemical energy (some bacteria) to sustain life.
Productivity – The ability of a stream, estuary, or the ocean to produce the food needed by anadromous fish at the various stages of their life cycle.
Public Land – The land that is owned by U.S. citizens and is administered and managed by the local, state, or federal government.
Public Trust Doctrine – Asserts that governments hold certain rights in trust for the public benefit and can take action to protect these rights from private interest.
Q
Quarry – Anything being hunted or pursued. A place where stone is excavated.
Quarter Saw – To saw a log into quarters lengthwise and then into boards in order to show the wood grain to advantage.
Quetzal – A crested trogon bird of Central America.
Quorum – The minimum number of members required to be present at an assembly or meeting before it can validly proceed to transact business.
Quotient – The results obtained when one number is divided by another.
R
Redd – A series of small nests for laying eggs built in bottom gravel by the female salmon.
Regeneration – The renewal of vegetation by natural or artificial means.
Refractory Species – Wood species that are difficult to treat. These species must be incised prior to treatment to meet AWPA standards.
Renewable Resource – A resource that has the capacity to be replaced through natural processes. Trees are a renewable resource.
Riffle – A shallow stream area characterized by broken water surface in coarser substrates.
Riparian – The land adjacent to and pertaining to the banks of streams, rivers, or other water bodies.
Riparian Rights – A system of water rights that gives anyone whose land adjoins a flowing stream the right to use water from the stream as long as some is left for downstream landowners. This system is most common in the Eastern United States.
Roads – In logging, generally classified as skid trails, spur roads, and main haul roads.
Roe – Salmon eggs
S
Salvage – The harvesting of dead and dying timber while it still has commercial value is called ‘salvage.’ Trees impacted by fire, insects, and disease can often be salvaged.
Sand – Loose soil made up of small rock particles.
Saprobe – An organism that secures its food directly from nonliving organic matter.
Sapwood – The younger wood nearer to the surface of the tree, which does not have the natural extractives (chemicals) to prevent decay.
Scarify – weakening of a seed shell, enabling it to germinate.
Sealant – A water repellent which may be forced into the wood along with the chemical preservative in a closed cylinder under pressure. However, treated wood should be cleaned and resealed yearly to maintain optimum appearance.
Seasoning – Wood is both air-dried and steam kiln-dried to reduce the water content.
Sediment – Suspended or deposited soil and organic matter in streams that originates from erosion processes.
Seral Stage – The series of changes occurring in the ecological succession of a plant community, e.g. pioneer stage or climax stage.
Serotinous – A pine cone or other seed case that requires heat from a fire to open and release the seed.
Shade-tolerant – The capacity of a tree or plant species to develop and grow in the shade of, and in competition with, other trees or plants.
Shelterwood – The silvicultural method that gradually removes the trees from a given stand by a series of partial cuttings over a relatively short period of time. Eventually all overstory trees are removed, resulting in an even-aged stand.
Shovel Logging – Relaying logs from a harvest area to roadside using a hydraulic log loader.
Side – A group of people and machines working together as a unit. A contractor might have a “skidder side” and a “cable side” working on the same “show.”
Silviculture – The art and science of growing and tending a forest (managing stands of trees to achieve desired outcomes relative to species composition and stand structure).
Site Preparation – Disturbance of an area’s topsoil and ground vegetation to create conditions suitable for regeneration.
Skid – The bunch of logs pulled behind a track or wheel skidder. Also known as a pull, turn, drag, or twitch among other names.
Skidder – A machine on tracks or wheels used to drag logs from the forest to a landing where they can be further processed and loaded on a truck. Skidders are equipped with cables or grapples.
Slash – The residue left on the ground (the limbs, bark, uprooted stumps, and small stem wood) that is not usable for commercial wood products.
Smolt – A juvenile salmonid which has reared in-stream and is preparing to enter the ocean. Smolts exchange the spotted camouflage of the stream for the chrome of the ocean.
SMZ – Streamside Management Zone, also know as RMZ (Riparian Management Zone). Provides buffer for shade, soil stability and woody debris.
Snag – A standing dead tree. Snags frequently provide homes for wildlife.
Softwood – A coniferous tree. The term softwood is commonly used but not strictly accurate; the wood of many conifers is harder than that of some so-called hardwood trees.
Soil – The accumulation of mineral particles and organic matter that forms a superficial layer over large parts of Earth’s surface. It provides support and nutrients for plants and is inhabited by numerous and various microorganisms and animals.
Species – A category of biological ranking just below the genus or subgenus category. Members of the same species are closely related organisms that are potentially able to breed with one another.
Family
Genus
Species
Species Diversity – The number of different species and their relative abundance in a given area.
Stand – A community of trees sufficiently uniform in species, age, arrangement or condition to be distinguishable as a group from the forest or other growth on the area.
Standards
Content Standards: Defines the curriculum schools are to offer.
Delivery Standards: Spell out the quality of services schools must provide so that students have a reasonable opportunity to achieve the expected levels of learning.
Performance Standards: Establish content-mastery levels and include assessments to measure whether students meet acceptable thresholds.
World-Class Standards: Standards for student learning and performance that will permit American students to match or exceed the performance of students in other countries.
Starch – Sugar is stored in a tree as starch, which is a complex carbohydrate. This is an available energy source.
Stewardship – The concept of responsible caretaking; the concept is based on the premise that we do not own resources, but are managers of resources and are responsible to future generations for their condition.
Stocks – Groups of fish that migrate together are called runs, or stocks. The threatened or endangered species listing usually refers to stocks on specific rivers (e.g. winter-run Chinook on Sacramento River).
Stoma – A small opening found in the epidermal layer of plants, allowing access for carbon dioxide and the release of water. Stomata are surrounded by guard cells that control the opening size.
Strategic Planning – Long range planning which allows an individual or organization to exercise control over its future and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. Without an overall strategy, short-term tactics are often misguided.
Streamside Management Zone (SMZ) – Vegetative areas adjacent to streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds managed for the protection of water quality stream habitat.
Substrate – The bottom material of a lake, stream, or ocean such as mud, sand, or gravel.
Succession (or Ecological Succession) – The replacement of one plant and/or animal species over time by another in progressive development toward climax vegetation.
Surface Fire – A fire burning along the surface without significant movement into the understory or overstory, with flame length usually below 1 meter.
Surface Water – Precipitation that does not soak into the ground or return to the atmosphere by evaporation.
Sustained Yield – A method of forest management that calls for an approximate balance between net growth and amount harvested.
Symbiosis – The living together in close association of two or more dissimilar organisms: includes parasitism, mutualism, and neutralism.
System Closure – the concept of reducing pollution at source by developing efficient ways to re-use more water and other elements in the waste stream.
T
Tall Oil – a paper making by-product commonly used to make soaps, paints, varnishes, printing inks, and water-proofing agents.
Thinning – The process of removing excess and poorer quality trees from a stand for the purpose of improving the growth and value of the remaining crop trees.
Threatened Species – Species that are likely to become endangered in the near future.
Total Fertility Rate – Births expected per woman during her reproductive years (15-49).
Transpiration – The process by which plants absorb water from their roots, move it up through the plant (via the xylem), pass it through pores (stomata) in the leaves and other plant parts, and then evaporate it into the atmosphere as water vapor.
Treaty Tribes – The Umatilla, Warm Springs, Yakima, and Nez Perce tribes are guaranteed fishing rights in the Columbia by 1855 treaties.
Tree Farm – A privately owned woodland where sustainable forest management is the primary objective.
Turbidity – Sediment suspended in the water column.
Turpentine: a paper making by-product commonly used as a paint thinner and solvent.
U
Understory – The layer formed by the crowns of smaller tree in a forest.
Understory fire – A fire burning in the understory, more intense than a surface fire and with flame lengths of 1-3 meters.
Uneven-aged Stand Management – The practice of managing a forest for various age classes by periodically selecting and harvesting individual trees of groups of trees.
Unions – There are two major teachers unions in the U.S.. The National Education Association has 2.2 million members and the American Federation of Teachers has 900,000 members.
V
Vision Statement – An explicit statement of what you want to do, be or have in the future. It must be positive and detailed enough for people to form a mental picture. It must be inspiring, challenging and worth the effort.
Vital Events – Births and deaths.
W
Water – A compound consisting of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, H2O, or Hydrogen Hydroxide. Pure water is a colorless, odorless, transparent liquid.
Water repellency – The resistance to soil wettability, which can be increased by intense fires.
Water Marketing – The idea that farmers and other users with water rights that save through conservation or growing less water-thirsty crops should be able to sell or lease the water they save to industries and cities rather than losing their rights to the water.
Watershed – A sloping area of land that collects, directs, controls, and discharges the flow of rainwater into a single main stream through a series of smaller tributaries, or all land and water within the confines of a drainage basin.
Wetlands – Geographic areas characteristically supporting hydrophytes, hydric soils, and some saturation or flooding during the growing season.
Wilderness Area – An area established by the federal government to be managed and preserved in an essentially untouched condition.
Wildfire – A fire, naturally caused or caused by humans, that is not meeting land management objectives, and thus requires suppression.
Woodfree – a paper that is produced from pulp that has undergone chemical rather than mechanical breakdown and is free of the chips found in groundwood and mechanical pulp.
XYZ
Xylem – The principal strengthening and water-conducting woody tissue of stems, leaves, and roots.
Zero Sum – A game or scenario where one wins all and the other loses all. Often used to describe the economy against the environment. Sustainable development rejects this zero sum scenario. It’s win/win rather than win/lose.
Zooplankton – Small aquatic invertebrates that live in the sunlit waters of streams, lakes, or oceans and feed on algae and other invertebrate animals. Zooplankton are the most prolific life forms on earth.