APPENDIX 1
GLOSSARY
adaptive management: adaptive management rigorously combines management, research, monitoring, and means of changing practices so that credible information is gained and management activities are modified by experience.
administrative law: the branch of the law which deals with the actions of government vis-a-vis the public.
age class: any interval into which the age range of trees, forests, stands, or forest types is divided for classification. Forest inventories commonly group trees into twenty-year age classes.
agro-forestry: land use involving the integrated production of trees, other forest plants, agricultural crops, and animals in a manner compatible with the local cultural patterns.
allowable annual cut (AAC): the volume of timber approved (every five years) by the Chief Forester to be logged annually. AACs are set for timber supply areas, tree farms and woodlots.
alternative silviculture systems: any program of logging, regeneration and stand-tending methods that does not include clearcutting, but includes patch-cut, coppice, seed tree, shelterwood, and selection silviculture systems.
archeological site: a location that contains physical evidence of past human activity and that derives its primary documentary and interpretive information through archaeological research techniques. These resources are generally associated with both the pre-contact and post-contact periods in British Columbia. These resources do not necessarily hold direct associations with living communities.
artificial regeneration: establishing a new forest by planting seedlings or by direct seeding.
backlog: a Ministry of Forests term applied to forest land areas where silviculture treatments such as planting and site preparation are overdue. Planting is considered backlog if more than five years have elapsed since a site was cleared (by harvesting or fire) in the interior and more than three years on the coast of British Columbia.
balanced, holistic process: an ecologically responsible forest planning process that ensures all forest users (human and non-human) have fair, legally protected or designated land bases.
basal area: the area of the cross-section of tree stems near their base, generally at breast height and including bark, measured over one hectare of land.
basic silviculture: harvesting methods and silviculture operations including seed collecting, site preparation, artificial and natural regeneration, brushing, spacing and stand tending, and other operations that are for the purpose of establishing a free growing crop of trees of a commercially valuable species and are required in a regulation, pre-harvest silviculture prescription or silviculture prescription.
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.
• low biodiversity emphasis: a landscape unit designation that directs forest management to reduce the percentage of old and mature forests to very low levels resulting in significant alteration of natural landscape patterns creating high risks to biodiversity and populations of native species (35 to 60 percent of plan area).
• intermediate biodiversity emphasis: a landscape unit designation that directs forest management to reduce the percentage of old and mature forests to minimal levels resulting in alteration of natural landscape patterns creating some risks to biodiversity and populations of native species (35 to 60 percent of plan area).
• high biodiversity emphasis: a landscape unit designation that directs forest management to maintain a percentage of old and mature forests to levels that result in some alteration of natural landscape patterns creating lower risks to biodiversity and populations of native species. Recommended for those areas where biodiversity conservation is a high management priority and which gives a higher priority to biodiversity conservation (a maximum of ten percent of plan area).
Biodiversity Guidebook: the Forest Practices Code guidebook that provides forest managers with a recommended process for meeting biodiversity objectives at both the landscape unit and stand level with the goal to reduce the impacts of forestry on biodiversity.
biogeoclimatic zone: a geographic area having similar patterns of energy flow, vegetation and solid as a result of a broadly homogeneous macro-climate.
bladed trail: a constructed trail that has a width greater than 1.5 metres and a mineral soil cutbank height greater than 30 centimetres.
botanical forest products: prescribed plants or fungi that occur naturally on Crown forest land. There are seven recognized categories: wild edible mushrooms, floral greenery, medicinal products, fruits and berries, herbs and vegetables, landscaping products and craft products.
blue-listed species: species considered to be vulnerable in BC, which are thus of special concern because of characteristics that make them sensitive to human activities or natural events.
buffers: a zone or strip of forest land that separates two areas, usually to protect a sensitive area from the impacts of the adjacent development activities.
canopy: the forest cover of branches and foliage formed by tree crowns.
Chief Forester: the assistant deputy minister of the Ministry of Forests who is responsible for determining allowable annual cuts (AACs) and oversees the following department branches: Timber Supply, Forest Practices, Resources Inventory, Research and Forestry Division Services.
Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel: a panel of experts including First Nations representatives, foresters and scientists, convened in 1993 by the BC government to develop "world class" forestry practices for the Clayoquot Sound region.
clearcut: a silviculture system that removes the entire stand of trees in a single harvesting operation from an area that is one hectare or greater and at least two tree heights in width. A clearcut is designed to be managed as an even-aged stand where only one age class is present.
commercial thinning: a partial cut in immature stands, where trees have reached merchantable size and value, to provide an interim harvest while maintaining a high rate of growth on well-spaced, final crop trees.
connectivity: an ecological term that describes connections among habitats, species, communities, and ecological processes to enable a flow of energy, nutrients, water, disturbances and organisms and their genes at both spatial and temporal scales.
conservation biology: an application of science centered on biodiversity and the processes that produce and sustain it.
conservation sector: a group of people and organizations concerned with promoting and ensuring careful and considerate resource use, which may mean no human use in some locations or use that enhances rather than depletes resources.
CORE: the Commission On Resources and Environment established by the BC government in 1992 to oversee regional land use planning and other sustainability initiatives; disbanded in 1996.
cultural heritage resources: objects, sites, or the locations of a traditional societal practice that is of historical, cultural or archaeological significance to the province, a community or an aboriginal people.
cutblocks: a specific area of land identified on a forest development plan, or in a licence to cut, road permit, or another form of permit, within which timber is to be or has been logged.
debris flow: mixture of soil, rock, wood debris and water which flows rapidly down steep gullies; commonly initiate on slopes greater than 30 degrees, but may run out onto footsteps of low gradient.
deferrals: specified areas where logging or other resource use activities have been postponed by government staff for a period of time to allow for adequate planning to be completed.
district managers: Ministry of Forest staff who are responsible for the forest management of crown land, including authorizing logging and silviculture activities, within one of BC’s 40 forest districts.
eco-certified: endorsement or verification that forest stands are managed (including logging and silviculture) according to ecologically responsible forest use.
eco-forestry: ecologically responsible forestry practices that maintain ecosystem functions and processes, such as single-tree selection logging.
ecological processes: the actions or events that link organisms (including humans) and their environment, such as disturbance, successional development, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, productivity, and decay.
ecological values: desired, healthy biological conditions for fish and wildlife habitat, microorganisms, soil, terrain, landforms, vegetation, water, diverse land base, and biodiversity.
ecosystem restoration: a process of helping to return degraded ecosystems or habitats to original structure and species composition.
falldown effect: a decline in timber supply or harvest level associated with the transition from harvesting the original stock of natural mature timber over one rotation to harvesting at a non declining level (typically equal to the annual increment) after conversion to a forest with a balanced age class structure.
fee simple: a legal term in property law, defining the bundle of rights associated with absolute ownership of land, such as the right to dispose of it during one’s lifetime, and to specify in a will how the property will be dealt with upon death of the owner.
fibre flow: the industrial conversion of forest stands into manufactured wood fibre products such as lumber, plywood, oriented-strand board, chips, pulp, paper, and cardboard for monetary profit.
fisheries sensitive zone: side and back channels, valley wall ponds, swamps, seasonally flooded depressions, lake littoral zones and estuaries that are seasonally occupied by over-wintering anadromous fish.
floodplain: a level, low-lying area adjacent to streams that is periodically flooded by stream water. It includes lands at the same elevation as areas with evidence of moving water, such as active or inactive flood channels, recent fluvial soils, sediment on the ground surface or in tree bark, rafted debris, and tree scarring.
forest cover: forest stands or cover types consisting of a plant community made up of trees and other woody vegetation, growing more or less closely together.
forest development plans: an operational plan prepared by a licensee or the forest service that shows the location of existing and proposed cutblocks, roads, road developments and deactivation plans, and describes the development plans for a five year period. This is the key forest plan that directs most forestry activities and the only operational plan that allows for public input.
forest ecosystem networks (FENs): forested areas that are zoned for minimal resource use to maintain or restore the natural connectivity within an landscape area.
forest floor: layers of fresh leaf and needle litter, moderately decomposed organic matter, and humus or well-decomposed organic residue.
forest floor displacement hazard: a ranking of the potential adverse impacts on forest productivity resulting from removal of the accumulated organic matter that constitutes the forest floor. It is determined in accordance with procedures set out in the Ministry of Forests’ publication Hazard Assessment Keys for Evaluating Site Sensitivity to Soil Degrading Processes Guidebook, as amended from time to time.
forest health: a forest condition that is naturally resilient to damage; characterized by biodiversity, it contains sustained habitat for timber, fish, wildlife, and humans, and meets present and future resource management objectives.
forest interior conditions: conditions found deep within forests, away from the effect of open areas. Forest interior conditions include particular microclimates found within large forested areas.
forest inventory: an assessment of forest resources, including digitized maps and a database which describes the location and nature of forest cover (including tree size, age, volume and species composition) as well as a description of other forest values such as soils, vegetation and wildlife features.
forest licence: a forest licence allows orderly timber harvest over a portion of a sustained yield management unit, and the timely reforestation of harvested areas according to a strategic resource management plan prepared by the Forest Service for each timber supply area. The licence has a term of fifteen to twenty years, generally replaceable every five years (some are non-replaceable) and operating areas that shift over time. Once an area is harvested and reforested the licensee moves to another part of the timber supply area. A forest licence specifies an annual allowable cut, requires a management and working plan, and specified management activities.
Forest Practices Code: the legislation, regulations, and guidebooks that govern forest practices in BC.
forest resources: a term defined broadly in section 1 of the Forest Practices Code to mean "resources and values associated with forests and range including, without limitation, timber, water, wildlife, fisheries, recreation, botanical forest products, forage and biological diversity."
Forests Resources Commission: a twelve member advisory body that existed from 1989 to 1991. It was assigned to review forestry issues and produced numerous reports and recommendations, including The Future of Our Forest which recommended major change to the forest tenure system.
free growing stand: defined in the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act as a stand of healthy trees of a commercially valuable species, the growth of which is not impeded by competition from plants, shrubs or other trees.
full successional cycle: the stages of growth and development of vegetation towards maturity, old age and death; including changes in species composition that follow natural disturbances.
GIS (Geographic Information Systems): refers to the discipline, the software, and the databases for electronic mapping.
grazing schedule: sets out the class and number of livestock that can use an area described in the schedule, the dates the livestock can use the area and other prescribed information.
green-up height: the minimum height and stocking levels which trees on a cutblock must achieve before an adjacent stand of timber may be harvested. This minimum varies from the standard three metres to heights of up to nine metres or more in watersheds and scenic viewsheds.
group selection: a silviculture system that removes trees in defined groups to create stand openings with a width less than two times the height of adjacent mature trees, and that manages the area as an uneven-aged stand.
harvest rate: the rate at which timber is harvested, commonly expressed as an allowable annual cut (AAC).
harvest system: the mix of felling, bucking and yarding systems used in logging a stand of timber.
higher level plans: refers to an objective for a resource management zone, a landscape unit, a sensitive area, a recreation site or trail, or an interpretive forest site. These plans provide strategic direction to operational planning.
hydrology: the science of water, its properties and movement over and under land surfaces.
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.
impact assessment: a study of the potential future effects of resource development on other resources and on social, economic and/or environmental conditions.
inoperable areas: lands that are unsuited for timber production now and in the foreseeable future by virtue of their elevation, topography, inaccessible location, low value of timber, small size of timber stands, steep or unstable soils that cannot be harvested without serious and irreversible damage to the soil or water resources, or designation as parks, wilderness areas, or other uses incompatible with timber production.
integrated management: a land management regime that identifies and considers all resource values, in the context of social, economic, and environmental objectives.
Interagency Management Committee (IAMC): a group of senior land and resource management officials in each region of the province who are responsible for integrating all resource planning including protected areas work and for setting regional planning priorities.
Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP): a strategic, multi-agency, integrated resource plan at the sub-regional level, based on the principles of required public participation; consideration of all resource values; consensus decision-making; and, resource sustainability.
landscape unit: a planning area delineated on the basis of geographic and/or ecological features such as watersheds. These serve as a focal point for the coordinated management of a broad range of resource values and are central to the management of landscape-level biodiversity and are designated by a district manager.
landscape unit plans: maps, objectives, strategies and indicators designed for the coordination and integration of resource conservation and development activities and to provide for the maintenance of biodiversity through recommended levels of seral stage distribution. These will include ecosystem networks, old growth management areas, visual resource objectives and access management objectives.
local resource use plan (LRUP): a plan approved by the district manager for a portion of the provincial forest that provides area-specific resource management objectives for integrating resource use in the area.
Long Range Harvest Level (LRHL): estimated harvest volumes for second and third growth forests in timber supply areas and tree farms. Sometimes also referred to as Long Term Harvest Level (LTHL).
mass wasting: movement of soil and surface materials by gravity.
mean annual increment (MAI): the average annual growth rate for a tree.
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): an agreement between ministers defining the roles and responsibilities of each ministry in relation to the other or others with respect to an issue over which the ministers have concurrent jurisdiction.
merchantable timber: a tree or stand that has attained sufficient size, quality and/or volume to make it suitable for harvesting.
natural disturbance types (NDT): characteristic types of ecosystems with different natural disturbance regimes. Five natural disturbance types are recognized as occurring in BC:
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 ecosystemsnon-conventional logging practices: the process of removing trees from the forest that minimizes impacts on the forests ecosystem or other non-timber resource values, such as small cable yarding systems, horse logging, or single tree selection.
non-timber values: values other than the extraction of timber such as fish and wildlife, culture, spiritual, tourism, recreation, trapping, and water quality.
old growth retention: forest management that maintains old growth or mature seral stages (live and dead trees of various sizes, species, composition and age classes).
Old Growth Strategy: a land use framework prepared in 1992 for managing old growth forests in BC that resulted from a process which represented the views of citizen and environmental groups, forest industry associations, organized labour, researchers, provincial and federal resource agency staff, and individual professionals.
Order-in-Council: an order of Cabinet, the executive branch of government.
partial cutting: refers generically to stand entries, under any of the several silvicultural systems, to cut selected trees and leave desirable trees for various stand objectives. Partial cutting includes harvest methods used for seed tree, shelterwood, selection, and clearcutting with reserves systems.
patch cutting: a silvicultural system that creates openings less than one hectare in size and is designed to manage each opening as a distinct even-aged opening.
polygons: a multi-sided, defined area on a map such as a proposed or existing cutblock or an area that contains a specified type and similarly aged stand of trees.
precautionary principle: the rule that management must be cautious and err on the side of maintaining forest ecosystem values and functions, rather than on the side of timber economics devoted to maintaining fibre flow. This principle recognizes the dynamic nature of ecosystems and humanity’s current limited understanding about the interrelationships between parts of the system and how they function.
professional accountability: professionals are accountable for any and all work they do in their capacity, or in the expectation that they are acting in their capacity as professionals. Foresters are professionally accountable for the quality and content of any plans they prepare, as well as for any consequences or results that flow form the implementation of that plan as written. Accountability is exacted through the complaint and discipline processes of the Association of Professional Foresters.
Protected Area Strategy (PAS): the BC government strategy to develop and expand the protected areas system to protect a minimum of twelve percent of the province by the year 2000.
protocol agreement: an agreement between two or more ministries or two or more areas of the same ministry stating the role of each party in relation to the other or others with respect to an issue, or issues over which the parties have concurrent jurisdiction.
public sustained yield unit (PSYU): an historic designation (since replace by timber suppy areas), for an area of Crown land, usually a natural topographic unit determined by drainage areas, managed for sustained yield by the Crown through the Ministry of Forests. It includes all Crown lands within the currently established boundaries of the unit and excludes federal lands, provincial parks, experimental forest reserves, gazetted watersheds and tree farm licences.
range: an open area over which livestock may roam and feed; also, the region throughout which an organism or ecological community naturally lives or occurs.
red-listed species: a species being considered for or already extirpated, endangered or threatened status. Note: threatened species are likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.
refugia: locations and habitats that support populations of species that are limited to small fragments of their previous geographic range.
regional manager: one of six Ministry of Forest managers who are each in charge of a region containing five to eight forest districts and who supervise staff responsible for forest, land and range management activities.
regulation: a law which is passed by the provincial or federal Cabinet, the executive branch of government. Cabinet may only pass regulations where the legislature or parliament has delegated the power to do so through an enactment.
reserves: areas of forest land that by law or policy are not available for logging or other types of resource uses.
resource management zones: a land use designation category under the Forest Practices Code that have defined objectives and strategies to guide subsequent operational plans.
restoration: ecological restoration is the process of assisting in the healing and rehabilitation of damage done to the diversity and dynamics of natural ecosystem processes and functions.
riparian area: an area of land that is adjacent to a stream, river, wetland or lake and contains vegetation that, due to the presence of water, is distinctly different from the vegetation of adjacent upland areas.
road deactivation: measures taken to stabilize roads and trails, including the rehabilitation of natural drainage patterns, the removal of sidecast soil if necessary, and the re-establishment of vegetation on permanently deactivated areas.
rotation: the length of time from when a stand of trees is harvested until the successive stand has regenerated and is available for harvest.
scenic area: any visually sensitive area or scenic landscape identified through a visual landscape inventory or planning process carried out or approved by the district manager.
sedimentation: the process of subsidence and deposition by gravity of suspended matter carried in water; usually the result of the reduction of water velocity below the point at which it can transport the material in suspended form.
seed tree: an even-aged logging system that retains fifteen to twenty high quality trees per hectare as a seed source. These trees may be logged before the next rotation.
selection silviculture system: a silvicultural system that removes mature timber either as single scattered individuals or in small groups at relatively short intervals, repeated indefinitely, where the continual establishment of regeneration is encouraged and an uneven-aged stand is maintained. As defined in the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Operation Planning Regulation, group selection removes trees to create openings in a stand less than twice the height of mature trees in the stand.
selective logging: removal of certain trees in a stand as defined by specific criteria (species, diameter at breast height, or height and form). Not to be confused with the selection silvicultural system.
Sensitive Areas: areas generally under 1000 hectares in size that are established under the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act by the district manager to manage or conserve unique or locally significant resource values.
seral stage: plant community conditions that develop over time during ecological succession from bare ground (or major disturbances) to climax. There are five main stages:
• early seral stage: the time period from disturbance to crown closure of conifer stands managed under the current forest management regime During this stage grass, herbs, or brush are abundant. It is a period of high diversity, often suitable for a broad group of plants and animals.
• mid-seral stage: the period in the forest stand life from crown closure to first merchantability; usually ages 15-40 years. Due to stand density, brush, grass, or herbs rapidly decrease in number and diversity. Some hiding cover may be present and species diversity declines towards narrower groups of plants and animals.
• late-seral stage: the period in the forest stand life from first merchantability to culmination of mean annual increment (MAI). Stand diversity is minimal (but conifer mortality rates will be fairly rapid) and animal forage is minimal.
• mature seral stage: the period in the forest stand life from culmination of MAI to old-growth stage or to 200 years. This stage features gradually increasing stand diversity; hiding; thermal cover and some forage may be present.
• old-growth seral stage: the stage in a forest stand where the climax forest and plant community capable of existing on that site occurs. The fate of the stand is determined by the frequency of natural disturbance events. This final stage continues on until stand replacement occurs. This stage is typified by a more even-aged forest structure where there are long periods between natural disturbances.
shelterwood: a silvicultural system in which groups of trees are logged in a design that leaves adjacent groupings of trees to serve as a seed source or to protect tree regeneration.
silviculture system: a planned program of treatments throughout the life of the stand to achieve stand structural objectives based on integrated resource management goals. A silvicultural system includes harvesting, regeneration and stand-tending methods or phases. It covers all activities for the entire length of a rotation or cutting cycle.
The Forest Practices Code Silvicultural Systems Guidebook identifies six major categories of silvicultural system: five even-aged systems and one uneven-aged system. Even-aged categories include the clearcut, patch-cut, coppice, seed tree and shelterwood systems. Uneven-aged systems are termed selection silvicultural systems.
silviculture prescription: a site-specific operational plan that describes the forest management objectives for an area. It prescribes the method for harvesting the existing forest stand, and a series of silviculture treatments that will be carried out to establish a free growing stand in a manner that accommodates other resource values as identified.
silviculture treatments: activities by which a forest stand, or group of trees is harvested, regenerated and tended over time. Treatments may utilize chemical or manual brushing, thinning, spacing and pruning.
single tree selection: the removal of individual trees of all size classes, more or less uniformly throughout the stand to encourage natural reproduction. Usually the poor quality stems are removed first to improve the overall commercial quality of the stand.
site index: an expression of the forest site quality of a stand, at a specified age, based either on the site height, or on the top height, which is a more objective measure.
site series: a site classification unit encompassing areas capable of supporting similar plant species. Site series reflect variations in soil and physiographic (e.g. nutrients) properties within a biogeoclimatic subzone.
Small Business Forest Enterprise Program: a program through which the Ministry of Forests sells Crown timber competitively to individuals and corporations who are registered in the program.
social values: the worth to society of aspects or conditions of forest land and its natural attributes, including scenic areas, significant cultural sites, and recreation opportunities.
soil disturbance: disturbance caused by a forest practice on an area covered by a silviculture prescription or stand management prescription including areas occupied by excavated or bladed trails of a temporary nature, areas occupied by corduroyed trails, compacted areas, and areas of dispersed disturbance.
soil erosion: the wearing away of the earth’s surface by water, gravity, wind, and ice.
spacing: altering the distance between the trees by planting or by thinning the number of trees per unit area.
spatial distribution: the assignment of management activities across the physical landbase.
Special Management Zones (SMZs): resource management zones or areas where special management is needed to address sensitive values such as fish and wildlife habitat, visual quality, recreation, tourism and cultural heritage features. The management intent of SMZs is to maintain these values while allowing some level of compatible resource extractive use and development.
special resource features: regionally significant or unique resource features such as waterfalls, particular scenic viewscapes, or critical wildlife habitat areas.
species at risk: as defined in the Forest Practices Code, any wildlife or plant species or plant communities that, in the opinion of the Deputy Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks, is threatened, endangered, sensitive or vulnerable and requires protection.
species composition: the composition and distribution of species populations in a given area.
stand: a community of trees sufficiently uniform in species composition, age, arrangement and condition to be distinguishable as a group from the forest or other growth in the adjoining area, and thus forming a silviculture or management entity.
stand management prescription: a site-specific operational plan describing the nature and extent of silviculture activities planned for a free growing stand of trees to facilitate the achievement of specified or identified social, economic and environmental objectives.
stand structure: the arrangement of the parts of a continuous group of trees including large old trees, snags (standing dead trees), fallen trees, and the arrangement and depth of soil organic layers.
standards unit: a defined area, usually within a cutblock or treatment area, which is subject to a particular standard of management due to the presence of similar ecological or geographical characteristics.
Statute: a law passed by the provincial legislature or federal parliament, also referred to as an enactment or Act of the legislature or parliament.
strategic land use planning: planning at the regional, sub-regional and, in some cases, at the local level which results in land allocation and/or resource management direction. Strategic land-use planning at the regional and sub-regional level involves the preparation of resource management zones, objectives and strategies.
stratification: the division of a unit of land into smaller sub-units based on similar ecological, geographical, biological or environmental characteristics.
stumpage: is the fee that individuals and firms are required to pay to the government when they harvest Crown timber in British Columbia. Stumpage is determined through a complex appraisal of each stand or area of trees that will be harvested for a given timber mark. A stumpage rate (dollars per square metre) is determined and applied to the volume of timber that is cut (square metres). Invoices are then sent to individuals or firms.
succession: the gradual supplanting of one community of plants by another, the sequence of communities being termed a sere and each stage seral.
targets: resource objectives such as preferred harvest rates or population densities of specified species.
temporal distribution: the assignment of management activities over long periods of time, such as over a planned harvest rotation period of 60 to 150 years.
tenure: the holding, particularly as to manner or term (i.e.; period of time), of a property. Land tenure may be broadly categorized into private lands, federal lands, and provincial Crown lands. The Forest Act defines a number of forestry tenures by which the cutting of timber and other user rights to provincial Crown land are assigned.
timber licence: area-based tenures which revert to the government when merchantable timber on the area has been harvested and the land reforested. Many of these licences have been incorporated into tree farm licences.
timber rotation cycle: the estimated growing time needed from initial harvest of a stand of trees through to the next harvest; usually a much shorter time span than occurs naturally when forests are allowed to reach an old growth condition.
timber supply area (TSA): an integrated resource management unit established in accordance with section 6 of the Forest Act. TSAs were originally defined by an established pattern of wood flow from management units to the primary timber-using industries.
total resource plan: a design for long-term forest development that guides resource use, such as logging, road building and recreation activities, over an entire area (such as a watershed); and that describes how approved objectives for identified resource values will be achieved on the ground.
treatment: a silviculture treatment that is carried out to create the post-harvest stand structure or site conditions specified in a silviculture prescription or stand management plan.
tree-farm licence (TFL): an agreement in the Forest Act which grants the rights to harvest timber for a 25-year term on a described area of Crown land (sometimes including private land) on a sustained or perpetual yield basis.
variable-retention silviculture system: as defined by the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel, a logging system that provides for the permanent retention after logging of various forest "structures" or habitat elements. These elements include large decadent trees or groups of trees, snags, and downed wood from the original stand that are important to the survival of organisms and processes that would otherwise be lost from clearcutting.
visual management: the identification, assessment, and design of the visual values of a scenic landscape, and the consideration of these values in the management of the Crown forest land base.
visual quality objectives (VQOs): resource management objectives 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 values for the area. There are five categories; preservation, retention, partial retention, modification, and maximum modification.
watersheds: areas drained by a particular stream or river; large watersheds may contain several smaller watersheds.
wetland: a swamp, bog, marsh or other similar area that supports natural vegetation that is distinct from adjacent upland areas.
wildcraft: harvesting of non-fibre forest resources, such as mushrooms, berries and ornamental shrubs.
wilderness: a pristine, natural area, usually greater than 1000 hectares, that is free of industrial development and roads and is managed with minimal human intervention so as to be self-regulating.
wildlife habitat areas (WHAs): a mapped area of land that is designated to meet the habitat requirements of one or more species of identified wildlife.
This glossary was adapted from Jim Cooperman’s "Keeping the Special in Special Management Zones," BC Spaces for Nature, May 1998, and the glossary found at the Ministry of Forests’ home page at www.for.gov.bc.ca.
COMMON ACRONYMS
AAC
Allowable Annual Cut AIA
Archeological Impact Assessment BEC
Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classifiaction CORE
Commission on Resources and Environment ESA
Environmentally Sensitive Area FDP
Forest Development Plan FES
Forest Ecosystem Specialist FL
Forest Licence FOI
Freedom of Information FRBC
Forest Renewal British Columbia FPC
Forest Practices Code IMA
Interim Measures Agreement IWMS
Identified Wildlife Management Strategy LP
Logging Plan LUCO
Land Use Coordination Office MELP
Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks MOA
Memorandum of Agreement MOF
Ministry of Forests MOU
Memorandum of Understanding OGMA
Old Growth Management Area OIC
Order in Council OPR
Operational Planning Regulation PAS
Protected Areas Strategy PIS
Pest Incidence Survey RLUP
Regional Land Use Plan RMA
Riparian Management Area RMZ
Riparian Management Zone RRZ
Riparian Reserve Zone SBFEP
Small Business Forest Enterprise Program SMP
Stand Management Prescription SMZ
Special Management Zone SP
Silviculture Prescription TFL
Tree Farm Licence TSA
Timber Supply Area UREP
Use, Recreation and Enjoyment of the Public VIA
Visual Impact Assessment VQO
Visual Quality Objective