Glossary of Forestry Terms

·         Clearcut--a regeneration technique that removes all the trees, regardless of size, on an area in one operation. Clear-cutting is most often used with species like aspen or black cherry, which require full sunlight to reproduce and grow well, or to create specific habitat for certain wildlife species. Clearcutting produces an even-aged forest stand.

·         Diameter-limit cut--a timber harvesting treatment in which all trees over a specified diameter may be cut. Diameter-limit cuts often result in high- grading.

·         High-grading--a type of timber harvesting in which larger trees of commercially valuable species are removed with little regard for the quality, quantity, or distribution of trees and regeneration left on the site.

·         Release--removal of overtopping trees to allow understory or overtopped trees to grow in response to increased light.

·         Residual stand--trees remaining following any cutting operation.

·         Salvage cut--the removal of dead, damaged, or diseased trees with the intent of recovering maximum value prior to deterioration.

·         Sawlog--a log large enough to yield lumber. Usually the small end of a sawlog must be at least 6 to 8 inches in diameter for softwoods and 10 to 12 inches for hardwoods.

·         Seed tree method--a regeneration technique where mature trees are left standing in a harvested area to provide seed for regeneration of the cut-over site.

·         Silviculture--the art, science, and practice of establishing, tending, and reproducing forest stands.

·         Site--the combination of biotic, climatic, topographic, and soil conditions of an area; the environment at a location.

·         Site quality--the inherent productive capacity of a specific location (site) in the forest affected by available growth factors (light, heat, water, nutrients, anchorage); often expressed as tree height at a base age.

·         Stand--a grouping of vegetation sufficiently uniform in species composition, age, and condition to be distinguished from surrounding vegetation types and managed as a single unit.

·         Stumpage--the commercial value of standing trees.

·         Sustained yield--historically, a timber management concept in which the volume of wood removed is equal to growth within the total forest. The concept is applicable to non-timber forest values as well.

·         Thinning--removal of trees to encourage growth of other selected individual trees. May be commercial or pre-commercial.

·         Timber stand improvement (TSI)--a combination of intermediate treatments designed to improve growth and composition of the forest.

·         Understory--the smaller vegetation (shrubs, seedlings, saplings, small trees) within a forest stand, occupying the vertical zone between the over- story and the herbaceous plants of the forest floor.