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A Total Forest Management Plan and Wildland Management Decision Support System
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The FSC Supplementary Glossary

Note: A number of definitions included in the Forest Certification Standards for the Southeastern United States are additions to or alternatives for definitions included in the Glossary of the Forest Stewardship Council's Principles and Criteria for Forest Management.

^* from Helms, John A., et al. 1998. The Dictionary of Forestry. Bethesda, Maryland: The Society of American Foresters.

Age class

A distinct aggregation of trees originating from a single natural event or management activity.

Allottee(s)

Person(s) owning an Indian allotment. An Indian allotment is private land owned by one or more individuals (rather than a tribe) but held in trust by the federal government.

Buffer

A strip of vegetation that is left or managed to reduce the impact of a treatment or action of one area on another.

Canopy^*

The foliar cover in a forest stand consisting of one or several layers.

Chlorinated hydrocarbons

A specific chemical family of insecticides identified by EPA and USDA in "Applying Pesticides Correctly: A Guide for Private and Commercial Applicators," which includes insecticides such as lindane and chlordane.

Commercial plantation

A stand established through artificial regeneration for the commercial production of forest products, usually at the shortest practical rotation, with a single species, and at regular spacing in rows. Although commercial plantations may assume the characteristics of a semi-natural forest, these plantations should continue to fall under the guidelines set for Principle 10.

Community^*

An assemblage of plants and animals living together and occupying a given area.

Community type

A generalized category comprising a number of similar units or stands of vegetation and including animal life.

Critical situations (as pertain to the definition of a High Conservation Value Forest; see Principle 9)

Critical situations are those where conditions exist with all of the following characteristics:

1. The forest area deemed critical is sufficiently different from surrounding forests as to be easily delineated.
2. The forest area performs one or more functions of such a nature that specialized management is required to maintain those functions.
3. The critical nature of the situation can be documented.
4. The efficacy of the proposed management treatments, or the detriment purported to be caused by any forbidden treatments, is documented in peer-reviewed literature.
5. The forest area provides resources basic to human survival (e.g., fresh drinking water).

Degraded seminatural forest

A subset of semi-natural forests with some of the principle characteristics and key components of native ecosystems; a return to a semi-natural forest is unlikely to occur in a reasonable amount of time (i.e., decades) without human intervention.

Desirable species

Any organism held to be beneficial, having pleasing or useful qualities or properties that humans decide to advance or retain by their management activities.

Endangered species^*

Any species of plants or animal defined through the Endangered Species Act of 1976 as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range, and published in the Federal Register.

Endemic species

A species whose entire native range is particular to a restricted geographic area.

Erosion^*

The wearing away of the land surface by rain, running water, wind, ice, gravity, or other natural or anthropogenic agents.

Even-aged management

A system of forest management in which stands are produced or maintained with relatively minor differences in age.

Even-aged stand

For hardwood (including upland and bottomland) and cypress forests, a stand in which the ages of 90% of the canopy trees vary by no more than plus or minus 20% of the average age. For other (including pine and pine-hardwood) forests, a stand in which the ages of 90% of the canopy trees vary by no more than plus or minus five years from the average age. Clearcutting, seed trees, and shelterwood regeneration systems result in even-aged stands.

Exotic species

An introduced species not native or endemic to the area in question (FSC). For the Forest Certification Standards for the Southeastern U.S., terrestrial exotic species are further defined as species not native or endemic to the Southeastern United States.

Forest

An ecosystem that, when intact, is characterized by tree cover usually consisting of stands varying in characteristics such as species, structure, composition, age~lass, and commonly including streams and wildlife. while forest ecosystems are not bound by property lines, for the purpose of this document, "forest" may be delimited by ownership or other qualifying characteristics. Management activities necessary to achieve this goal shall be carried out. In addition, all management activities and economic uses that do not conflict with the primary purpose, including logging when appropriate, may be carried out.

Refugium (p1ural - refugia)

Locations and habitats that support populations of organisms that are limited to small fragments of their previous geographic range.

Restoration^*

The process of returning ecosystems or habitats to their original structure and species composition.

Restoration plantation (Restoration planting)

A stand established through artificial regeneration with the primary purpose of returning a site to a natural forest condition. Secondary forest: The FSC definition of secondary forests was found to be confusing and therefore it will not be included in the Glossary of the Forest Certification Standards for the Southeastern U.S.

Riparian zone^*

A terrestrial area, other than a coastal area, of variable width adjacent to and influenced by a perennial or intermittent body of water. Riparian zones provide a functional linkage between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems through coarse and fine organic matter input, bank stability, water temperature regulation, sediment and nutrient flow regulation, maintenance of unique wildlife habitat, and in limiting or mitigating non-point source pollution.

Seminatural forest

A forest ecosystem with many of the characteristics of native ecosystems present. Semi-natural forests exhibit a history of human disturbance (e.g., harvesting or other silvicultural activities), are very common in the Southeastern United States, and include a considerable amount of unmanaged and most of the managed forest land other than plantations.

Silviculture^*

The art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health and quality of forests and woodlands to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society on a sustainable basis.

Single-tree selection

An uneven-aged harvest and regeneration system of selecting individual trees. Trees of any or all sizes are selected for harvest based on their individual merits, as compared to their closest counterparts. This system is suitable for species that regenerate under partially open canopies where filtered sunlight reaches the floor.

Snag

A standing dead tree from which the leaves and most of the limbs have fallen.

Social impacts

Intended and unintended effects on the human population, and the surrounding environment.

Stand

A contiguous group of trees sufficiently uniform in age class distribution, composition, and structure and growing on a site of sufficiently uniform quality to be a distinguishable unit.

Structural diversity

The diversity in a plant community resulting from the variety of physical forms of the plants within the community (such as the layering or tiering of the canopy of a forest from the groundlevel to the tops of the tallest trees).

Tenure

Socially defined agreements held by individuals or groups, recognized by legal statutes or customary practice, regarding the "bundle of rights and duties" of ownership, holding, access and/or usage of a particular land unit or the associated resources therein (such as individual trees, plant species, water, minerals, etc).

Threatened species

Any species, which is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Uneven-aged management: A system of forest management designed to maintain and regenerate a stand with three or more age classes.

Uneven-aged stand^*

A stand with trees of three or more distinct age classes, either intimately mixed or in small groups.

Use rights

Rights for the use of forest resources that can be defined by local custom, mutual agreements, or prescribed by other entities holding access rights.

Water quality

The quality of water determined by a series of standard parameters-turbidity, temperature, bacterial count, pH, and dissolved oxygen.

Woody debris

All woody material, from whatever source, that is dead and lying on the forest floor.

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This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision July 20, 2001.