Biodiversity (biological diversity)
The diversity of plants, animals and other living organisms in all their forms and levels of organization, including genes, species, ecosystems and the evolutionary and functional processes that link them.
Coarse woody debris
Sound and rotting logs and stumps that provide habitat for plants, animals and insects, and a source of nutrients for soil development. Material generally greater than 8–10 cm diameter.
Cutblock
A specific area of land identified on a forest development plan, or in a licence to cut, road permit or Christmas tree permit, within which timber is to be or has been harvested.
Cutblock adjacency
The desired spatial relationship among cutblocks as specified in integrated resource management guidelines. They can be approximated by specifying the maximum allowable proportion of a forested landscape that does not meet green-up requirements.
Forest cover requirements
Specify desired distributions of areas by age or size class groupings. These objectives can be used to reflect desired conditions for wildlife, watershed protection, visual quality and other integrated resource management objectives.
Forest ecosystem network
An area that maintains or restores the natural connectivity within an area.
Forest inventory
Assessment of British Columbia's timber resources. It includes computerized maps, a database describing the location and nature of forest cover, including size, age, timber volume and species composition, and a description of additional forest values such as recreation and visual quality.
Forest renewal plan
A major long-term plan to renew British Columbia's forests by improving reforestation and silviculture, cleaning up environmental damage, and enhancing community stability and employment within the forest sector.
Harvest forecast
The flow of potential timber harvests over time. A harvest forecast is usually a measure of the maximum timber supply that can be realized, over time, for a specified land base and set of management assumptions. It is a result of forest planning models and is affected by the size and productivity of the land base, the current growing stock, and management objectives, constraints and assumptions.
Identified wildlife
Those species at risk that the Deputy Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks or a person authorized by that deputy minister, and the chief forester, agree will be managed through a higher-level plan, wildlife habitat area or general wildlife measure.
Inoperable areas
Areas defined as unavailable for harvest for terrain-related or economic reasons. Characteristics used in defining inoperability include slope, topography (e.g., the presence of gullies or exposed rock), difficulty of road access, soil stability, elevation and timber quality. Operability can change over time as a function of changing harvesting technology and economics.
Landscape unit
A planning area, up to 100 000 ha in size, based on topographic or geographic features such as a watershed or series of watersheds. They are established by the district manager.
Long-term harvest level
A harvest level that can be maintained indefinitely given a particular forest management regime (which defines the timber harvesting land base and includes objectives and guidelines for non-timber values) and estimates of timber growth and yield.
Mature forest
Forests composed primarily of co-dominant trees greater than 45 cm dbh, with canopies that vary vertically, horizontally or both. Generally refers to trees 80 to 120 years old or greater, depending on species and site conditions.
Mean annual increment (MAI)
Stand volume divided by stand age. The age at which average stand growth, or MAI, assumes its maximum is called the culmination age. Harvesting all stands at this age results in a maximum average harvest over the long term.
Natural disturbance type (NDT)
A term used to to characterize areas with different natural disturbance regimes. Five natural disturbance types are recognized as occurring in B.C.
NDT1. Ecosystems with rare stand initiating events
NDT2. Ecosystems with infrequent stand initiating events
NDT3. Ecosystems with frequent stand initiating events
NDT4. Ecosystems with frequent stand maintaining fires
NDT5. Alpine Tundra and Sub-Alpine Parkland ecosystems
Netdown
The process of identifying the net land base, which is the total number of hectares of forest land contributing to the annual allowable cut. Areas such as private ownership, non-forest, non-productive, environmentally sensitive, unmerchantable or inaccessible are deleted from the gross land base.
Riparian area
Areas of land adjacent to wetlands or bodies of water such as swamps, streams, rivers or lakes.
Riparian management zone
That portion of the riparian management area that is outside of any riparian reserve zone or if there is no riparian reserve zone, that area located adjacent to a stream, wetland or lake of a width determined in accordance with Part 10 of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act, Operational Planning Regulation.
Riparian reserve zone
That portion, if any, of the riparian management area or lakeshore management area located adjacent to a stream, wetland or lake of a width determined in accordance with Part 10 of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act, Operational Planning Regulation.
Seral stages
The stages of ecological succession of a plant community (e.g., from young stage to old stage). The characteristic sequence of biotic communities that successively occupy and replace each other by which some components of the physical environment becomes altered over time.
Stand initiating event
Such events occur when natural disturbances such as wildfire, wind, landslides and avalanches significantly alter an ecosystem. In most cases, there will be considerable mortality of plant species, some degree of site disturbance, and the initiation of successional processes that will form a new plant community with a different structure and likely a different composition than its predecessor.
Stand level
The level of forest management at which a relatively homogeneous land unit can be managed under a single prescription, or set of treatments, to meet well-defined objectives.
Stream
A watercourse, having an alluvial sediment bed, formed when water flows on a perennial or intermittent basis between continuous definable banks.
Timber harvesting land base
The portion of the total land area of a management unit considered to contribute to, and be available for, long-term timber supply. The harvesting land base is defined by deducting non-contributing areas from the total land base according to specified management assumptions.
Timber supply area (TSA)
An integrated resource management unit established in accordance with Section 6 of the Forest Act.
Visual quality objective (VQO)
A resource management objective established by the district manager or contained in a higher-level plan that reflects the desired level of visual quality based on the physical characteristics and social concern for the area.
Watershed assessment
An evaluation of the cumulative impact that proposed activities and developments would have on stream flows, suspended sediment, landslide and stream channel stability within the watershed.
Wildlife habitat area
A mapped area of land that the Deputy Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks, or a person authorized by that deputy minister, and the chief forester, have determined is necessary to meet the habitat requirements of one or more species of identified wildlife.
Wildlife tree
A tree or group of trees that are identified in an operational plan to provide present or future wildlife habitat.
Wildlife tree patch
A wildlife tree patch (WTP) is an area specifically identified for the retention and recruitment of suitable wildlife trees. A wildlife tree patch can contain a single wildlife tree to many wildlife trees.