Forest Products Glossary
Access Road
A temporary or permanent entry into a land parcel.
All-aged or Uneven-aged Management
The practice of managing a forest by periodically selecting and harvesting individual trees or groups of trees from a stand while preserving its natural appearance.
All-aged or Uneven-aged stand
A forest stand composed of trees of different ages and sizes.
Annual
A plant that lives or grows for only one year or one growing season.
Artificial Regeneration
Establishing a new forest by planting or direct seeding.
Bedding
A site preparation method in which special equipment is used to concentrate surface soil and forest litter into a ridge 6 to 10 inches high on which forest seedlings are to be planted.
Best Management Practice (BMP) [Forestry Operations & Water Quality]
A practice, or combination of practices, that is determined to be an effective and practicable (including technological, economic, and institutional considerations) means of preventing or reducing the amount of pollution generated by nonpoint sources to a level compatible with water quality goals.
Block
An area of land or timber that has been defined for management purposes. One block may be composed of stands of different species or ages.
Board foot
A unit of wood equaling 144 cubic inches. A 1" x 12" shelving board that is 1 foot long = 1 board foot.
Bole
The main trunk of a tree.
Cable Logging
A technique of skidding logs to a landing by wire rope cable. Logs are lifted partially or totally free of the ground during skidding.
Canopy
The upper layer of tree crowns in a forest.
Capital Gains
Profit on the sale of an asset such as timber, land or other property. Reporting timber sales as capital gains provides certain tax advantages over reporting revenues as ordinary income.
Chip-N-Saw
1. A cutting method used in harvesting lumber from trees measuring between 6 and 14 inches diameter at breast height. The process involves chipping off the rounded layer of a log before sawing the remaining cant (rectangular portion) into lumber.
Chip-n-saw mills provide a market for trees larger than pulpwood and smaller than sawtimber. 2. A tree suitable for the chip-n-saw process.
Clearcutting
A regeneration method of timber harvesting in which all suitable trees within a designated area are removed, leaving ground material in place, along with stumps and leftover woody debris. This method typically is needed to successfully re-generate most pine species, and some hardwood species of trees. Note that clearcutting should not be confused with land clearing operations, in which all material is scraped off the ground and stumps are removed to allow for a conversion of use to non-forestry purposes.
Cord
A stack of round or split wood containing 128 cubic feet including wood, bark and air space. A standard cord measures 4 feet by 8 feet by 4 feet.
Crop tree
Any tree selected to grow to final harvest or to a selected size. Crop trees are chosen on the basis of quality, species, size, timber potential, or wildlife value.
Crown
The branches and foliage at the top of a tree.
Cruise
1. A survery of forestland to locate timber and estimate its volume by species, products, size, quality or other characteristics. 2. The estimate obtained from such a survey.
Cull
A tree or log of marketable size made useless for all but firewood or pulpwood because of shape, disease, defect, insect infestation or injury.
Cutting Contract
A written, legally binding document used in the sale of standing timber. The contract specifies the provisions covering the expectations and desires of both buyer and seller.
Cutting Cycle
The planned time interval between major harvesting operations within the same stand; usually within uneven-aged stands.
D.B.H.
See "Diameter at Breast Height"
Deck (also known as "landing", "ramp", "set-out")
An area designated on a logging job for the temporary storage, collection, handling, sorting and/or loading of trees or logs.
Detritus
Small pieces of dead and decomposing plants and animals. Detached and broken-down organic fragments of structure. Small organic particles such as leaves and twigs.
Diameter at Breast Height
The diameter of a tree measured in inches at breast height (4.5 feet above the ground).
Diameter-limit cutting
A selection method in which all marketable trees above a specified diameter are harvested. Diameter-limited cutting can lead to long term degradation of the stand.
Drum chopping
A site preparation technique in which logging debris is leveled by a bulldoze pulling a large drum filled with water. Chopped areas are often burned to further reduce debris and control sprouting before seedlings are planted.