Important Forestry Terminologies/Terms
GLOSSARY
1. ADVANCE GROWTH:-
Young trees which have sprung up in accidental openings in the forest or under the forest cover before reproduction cuttings are begun.
2. ANNUAL RING:-
The layer of wood produced by the diameter growth of a tree in one year, as seen on a cross-section
3. ACRE:-
A unit of land measurement, 43560 square feet
4. ASPECT:-
The direction toward which a slopes faces, the main points of the compass
i. N
ii. NE
iii. E
iv. SE
v. S
vi. SW
vii. W
viii. NW
5. AFFORESTATION:-
Establishment of a forest on an area not previously forested.
6. BASAL AREA:-
The area of a cross-section of a tree, or the sum of such area
7. BLANK:-
An opening in the Forest where from any cause, very few or no trees are growing.
8. BIOMASS:-
Weight of complete tree, including roots, stumps, stems, limbs, branches and leaves
9. BLAZE:-
A mark placed on a standing tree to call special attention to the tree.
10. BREAST HEIGHT:-
Four and half feet high, the point on a tree where diameter measurements are taken
11. BUT LOG:-
The first log above the stump
12. CLEAN CUTTING:-
The cutting of the entire stand
13. CANOPY:-
Roof of forest crop made up of trees crowns.
14. CLEANING:-
A thinning mode in a stand which has not reached the small-pole stage. Its main object is to remove trees of undesirable form and species.
15. COMPARTMENT:-
The unit of area treated in the working plan. The size and shape of compartments are determined mainly by the topographic features. It may be divided into two or more sub-compartments which may be either temporary or permanent.
16. COMPARTMENT LINE:-
The boundary of a compartment it may be marked by a road, a Ride or natural features such as a stream or the crest of Ridge.
17. COMPOSITE FOREST:-
A forest in which both seedlings and sprouts occur in considerable number it may be either pure or mixed.
18. CONIFER:-
A tree belonging to the order Coniferae, usually evergreen with cones and needle-shaped leaves and producing wood commercially known as “softwood”
19. COPPICE:-
A Forest grown from sprouts.
20. CROWN:-
The upper part of a tree, including the living branches with their foliage. The crown is described as long or short, Broad or Narrow, Compact or Ragged, Conical or Flat.
21. CROWN DENSITY:-
The density of the crowns of the trees in a forest, it is usually measured by the extent to which the ground is shaded. The degree of crown density in a forest and expressed by the following terms; Closed, Dense, Thin, Open.
When the crowns form an uninterrupted cover and permit little or no sunlight to reach the ground is closed.
When three-fourths or more of the ground is shaded by the crowns is thin.
When three-fourths to one-half of the ground is shaded by the crowns is open.
22. DIBBLE:-
A tool for making holes for planting seeds or seedling
23. DOMINANT:-
Having the crown free to light on all sides because of greater height
24. DOTY:-
Decayed
25. DENDROLOGY:-
The identification and systematic classification of trees
26. DRILL:-
A shallow trench in a nursery bed in which seeds are planted
27. ECOSYSTEM:-
The interacting system of a biological community and its non-living environment
28. EVEN-AGED FOREST:-
A forest with trees of uniform age
29. FIRST GROWTH:-
Natural forest in which no cuttings have been made
30. FOREST:-
An area whose principal crop is trees
31. FOREST CAPITAL:-
The lands, timber, Reproduction and physical improvements such as Roads, fire tower etc which make up a forest property
32. FOREST TYPE:-
A forest or a part of forest possessing distinctive characteristics of composition or habit of growth
33. FIRE LINE:-
The narrow portion of a control line from which inflammable materials have been removed by scraping or digging down to mineral soil
34. FOREST UTILIZATION:-
The branch of forestry concerned with the operation of harvesting and marketing the forest crop and other resources of the forest.
35. GROWING STOCK:-
All the trees growing in a forest expressed in terms of number or volume
36. GERMINATION:-
The process by which a seed or spore gives rise to a new and independent plant.
37. GROUND COVER:-
All small plants growing in a forest, except young trees such as weeds, grasses. Mosses and ferns
38. HARDWOOD:-
A broadleaved or dicotyledonous tree
39. HUMUS:-
Decomposed organic matter in and on the surface of the soil
40. HABITAT:-
The unit area of environment, the kind of place in which the plant or animal lives.
41. HARDWOOD:-
Broadleaved timber species
42. HEARTWOOD:-
The inner core of a woody stem, usually differentiated from the outer enveloping layer (sapwood) by its darker color.
43. IMPROVEMENT THINNING:-
Usually the first thinning made when a forest is put under management, to prepare it for the application of a regular system.
44. INCREMENT:-
The volume of wood produced during a given period by the growth of a tree or of a stand. There are three kinds of Increment;
a. Volume increment:-
It is the increase in volume of a tree or stand.
b. Quality increment:-
It is the increase in value per unit of volume.
c. Price increment:-
It is the increase resulting from an increase in the price of forest products independent of quality increment.
45. INDEX FOREST:-
That forest which in density, volume and increment reaches the highest average which has been found upon a given locality.
46. INTERMEDIATE:-
Having the crown shaped on the sides, but free to light at the top.
47. INTERMEDIATE YIELD:-
All material from thinning or from any cutting not intended to invite or assist production.
48. INTOLERANT:-
Incapable of enduring heavy shade
49. IRREGULAR FOREST:-
Forest in which the trees differ considerably in age
50. LOCALITY:-
An area considered with reference to forest producing power. The factors of the locality are the Altitude, Soil, Aspect and other local conditions influencing forest growth.
51. LUMBER:-
To log or to manufacture logs into lumber or to both.
52. LUMBER JACK:-
One who works in logging camp.
53. LITTER:-
The uppermost layer of the organic debris composed of freshly fallen or slightly decomposed organic matter.
54. LOP:-
To chop branches.
55. MATURE FOREST:-
Forest so old that growth in height is practically at an end, and diameter growth is decreasing.
56. MEAN ANNUAL INCREMENT:-
The total increment of a tree or stand divided by its age in years
57. MANGROVE FOREST:-
Forest growing along sea coast subject to frequent or daily seawater inundation
58. MIXED FOREST:-
Forest composed of two or more species.
59. NORMAL FOREST:-
A forest having trees of all size/age-classes in proper proportion
60. POLE:-
A tree from 4-12 inches in diameter at breast height
61. POLLARD:-
To invite the production of shoots at the top of a tree by cutting back the crown
62. PRUNING:-
The removal of branches from standing trees by Natural or Artificial means.
63. PURE FOREST:-
Forest composed of trees of one species. In practice, a forest in which 80% of the trees are of one species
64. PERCOLATION:–
The movement of water through the soil
65. PLANTATION:-
An artificially reforested area established by planting or by direct sowing.
66. REGULAR FOREST:-
Forest in which the trees are approximately of the same age
67. REPRODUCTION:-
The process by which a forest is renewed
68. ROOT COLLAR:-
The transition zone between stem and root
69. REGENERATION:-
Re-establishment of a forest crop with sapling through Natural or Artificial means.
70. ROTATION:-
The period represented by the age of a forest, or a part of a forest at the time when it is cut or intended to be cut. There are five kinds of rotation;
a. Financial Rotation
b. Income Rotation
c. Sivical Rotation
d. Technical Rotation
e. Volume Rotation
71. SECOND GROWTH:-
Forest growth which has not reached a height of 3 feet
72. SEED BEARER/MOTHER TREE:-
Any tree which bears seed, specially a tree which provides the seeds for Natural Reproduction.
73. SEED YEAR:-
A year in which a given species of tree bears seeds; specifically a year in which a given species bears seed abundantly.
74. SHAKE:-
A crack in timber, due to frost, wind or sun
75. SEED:-
The ripened ovule
76. SEEDLING:-
A tree grown from seed
77. SHELTERBELT:-
Natural or artificial forest maintained as a protection from wind or snow.
78. SHRUB:-
A woody plant with no main stem or trunk
79. SILVICS:-
The science which treats of the life of trees in the forest
80. SILVICULTURE:-
The art of producing and tending a forest
81. SLASH:-
The debris left after logging, wind or fire.
82. SLOPE:-
The gradient of the land surface
83. SNOW BREAK:-
The breaking of trees by snow
84. SOUR HUMUS:-
Humus harmful to forest growth owing to the presence of humic or similar acids produced by decomposition under excess of moisture and lack of air
85. SPECIES:-
A division of genus the plants of which seem to be derived from an immediate common ancestor
86. SPROUT:-
A tree which has grown from a stump or root
87. STAND:-
All growing trees in a forest or in part of a forest
88. STANDARD:-
A tree from 1 to 2 feet in a diameter, at breast height
89. STEM:-
The trunk of a tree
90. STUMP:-
That portion of the tree below the cut made in felling a tree.
91. STUMPAGE:-
The value of timber as it stands uncut in the forest or the standing timber itself.
92. SUCCESSION:-
The progressive development of the vegetation towards its highest ecological expression, the CLIMAX
93. SUCKER:-
A shoot from an underground root or stem
94. SUPPRESSED:-
A tree having growth more or less seriously retarded by shade
95. TREE:-
A woody plant having one well-defined stem and a more or less definitely formed crown, usually attaining a height of at least 8 feet
96. TAPER:-
The gradual diminution of diameter in a stem of a tree or a log from the base to the top
97. TAP-ROOT:-
A central root running deep into the soil
98. THINNING:-
The removal of a portion of the trees with the object of improving the stand without inviting natural reproduction
The following kinds of thinnings are distinguished.
Cleaning, improvement thinning, accretion thinning.
99. TOLERANCE:-
The capacity of a tree to endure shade
100. TOWN FOREST:-
A forest which is a property of a city, town or village
101. TRANSPIRATION:-
The process by which the water is taken up by the roots of plants and given off to the air through the leaves and branches
102. TREE CROWN:-
That part of a tree which is branched, forming the head.
103. TWO-STORIED FOREST:-
Comprising on the same area two classes, which vary considerably in height, composed of trees of different species.
The term is not applicable to forest under Reproduction in which the appearance of two stories is the temporary Result of an incomplete process, but to those forests of which the two stories of growth are natural and permanent features. In a two-storied forest, the taller trees form the over wood or upper storey. The shorter trees fro the underwood or lower storey.
104. UNDERGROWTH:-
The ground cover, underbrush, and young trees below the large sapling stage
105. UNEVEN-AGED:-
A forest with trees of different size or age classes mixed together.
106. VETERAN:-
A tree over 2 feet in diameter, at breast height
107. WATERSHED:-
An area from which the run-off flows into a given stream
108. WOOD:-
The lignified water-conducting, strengthening and storage tissues of branches, stems and roots
109. WEED:-
A plant out of place, not of any appreciable economic value
110. WEED TREE:-
A tree of a species which has little or no value
111. WINDBREAK:-
A belt of trees which serves as a protection from wind
112. WINDFALL:-
A tree thrown by wind
113. WORKING PLAN:-
A detailed and comprehensive scheme for the best permanent use of a forest
114. YIELD:-
The amount of wood at present upon, or which after a given period will be upon, a given area
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Naeem Javid Muhammad Hassani is working as Conservator of Forests in Balochistan Forest & Wildlife Department (BFWD). He is the CEO of Tech Urdu (techurdu.net) Forestrypedia (forestrypedia.com), All Pak Notifications (allpaknotifications.com), Essayspedia, etc & their YouTube Channels). He is an Environmentalist, Blogger, YouTuber, Developer & Vlogger.