Glossary
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| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Afforestation | Planting trees on land not currently covered with forest. |
| Bark | The tissue covering the stems, branches and roots of a plant, extending from the cambium layer to the outer surface. |
| Biodegradable | Capable of being broken down by bacteria or other living organisms. |
| Biodiversity | The variety of all plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genes they contain and the ecosystems of which they are a part. |
| Biome | A living community, characterised by its main types of plants and the animals that depend on them, e.g. sclerophyll forest. |
| Blackwood | A species of acacia or wattle (Acacia melanoxylon), that is widespread in eastern Australia, southern South Australia and Tasmania and produces a high-quality hardwood timber. |
| Blue gum | Generally refers to the forest tree, Tasmanian blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus), which is grown widely for wood and hardwood chip production. South Australian blue gum (Eucalyptus leucoxylon) occurs in many Native Forest Reserves. |
| Boreal forests | Boreal forests consist mainly of coniferous (cone-bearing, needle-leaved or scale-leaved) evergreen trees. Found in regions that have long winters and moderate to high annual rainfall. |
| Cambium | The layer of cells between the wood and the bark of a tree which divide and add growth to both the wood and the bark. |
| Canopy | The top part, or crown of a tree, consisting of branches and foliage (leaves/ needles). |
| Catchment | An area of land drained by a major river and its tributaries. |
| Chipping | Debarked logs, often of lower quality, are chipped or flaked into small pieces for use in particle board, paper manufacture or fuel wood (also see woodchips). |
| Clear felling | The complete removal of a crop of trees from a site in a single operation. |
| Clearwood | Wood which is free of knots; also known as cleartimber. |
| Cloning | A process of producing plants, which all have the same genes as the original plant from which the clone was made. |
| Conifers | Cone-bearing trees, most of which are evergreen and have needle-like leaves. |
| Compartment | A small area of forest from which trees are harvested. |
| Crown | The branches and foliage at the top of a tree (also see canopy). |
| Deforestation | The cutting or burning of forests to clear the land of trees. |
| Degradation | Any damage to the natural resources that living things need to survive. |
| Dieback | A term used to describe the gradual death of trees. Dieback can be caused by a complex interaction of factors including fungal infection, insect attack, waterlogging and soil salinity. |
| Ecological Sustainability | Allowing ecosystems to function healthily by balancing the needs of nature with the needs of humans and not using resources faster than they can be replaced. |
| Ecologically Sustainable Development | Ecologically Sustainable Development meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations. |
| Ecosystem | The interactions between a community of living organisms in a particular area and the nonliving environment. |
| Endemic | An endemic species is one that is confined to a specific country, region or location. |
| Eucalypt | Evergreen hardwood trees belonging to the genus Eucalyptus. The genus has about 700 species. |
| Exotic species | A plant or animal species introduced from another country. |
| Farm forestry | The practice of producing wood and agricultural products on the same land, also known as agroforestry. |
| Felling | The cutting down or harvesting of forest trees. |
| Forest | An area of land covered by trees. Forests can be native or planted. |
| Forester | A person trained in forest management, who usually has a university degree in forestry. |
| Forestry | The managing and protecting of forested land for timber production and other values. |
| Forest litter | Dead leaves, branches and other material shed by trees and other plants to form a layer of mulch on the forest floor. |
| Global warming | The observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans in recent decades, as a result of human activities. |
| Greenhouse gases | Gases in the atmosphere that stop heat escaping from the earth and contribute to global warming. The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide and ozone. |
| Growth rings | The rings formed in the trunk of a tree as wood of different densities is produced at different times during the growing season. |
| Habitat | The environment in which a plant or animal lives. Each living organism has its preferred habitat. Some organisms are much more sensitive than others to changes in the environment, and are therefore more vulnerable. |
| Hardwoods | Wood produced by species of trees that bear flowers and have broad leaves (also see softwood). |
| Harvesting | The cutting down of a crop of forest trees for wood. |
| Heartwood | The central core of dark hard wood in tree trunks, consisting of old cells blocked with resins, tannins and oils. |
| Indigenous | A species which occurs naturally in an area and has not been introduced from elsewhere. |
| Kiln drying | Steam seasoning of green (newly-sawn) timber to reduce the moisture in the wood and give it increased stability and strength. |
| Mallee | Low, shrubby varieties of eucalyptus with multiple stems growing from an underground rootstock known as a lignotuber. |
| Monitoring | The routine counting, testing or measuring of environmental factors or biota to determine their status or condition. |
| Multi-function forest | A forest area with a range of different uses, such as wood production, recreation, water catchment protection and conservation of native fauna and flora. |
| Mycorrhiza | An association between a fungus and the roots of a forest tree that usually benefits them both. |
| Native forest | Trees and vegetation that naturally grow in an area and are not introduced from else where. |
| Natural regeneration | Regrowth of forest as seeds fall naturally onto the ground or shoots sprout from the roots and stumps of fallen trees. |
| Old-growth forest | A natural forest left unspoilt by human activities. Many of the trees will be extremely old and/or large. |
| Open forests | Forests in which the leaves shade 30 to 70% of the forest floor. As well as trees, they have a lower layer of shrubs and a ground layer covered in grasses. |
| Parasite | An organism which lives on or in and obtains its food from other living organisms (also see saprophyte). |
| Particle board | Dried wood particles glued and squashed together in layers to form boards. |
| An animal or plant species that occurs where it is not wanted (also see weed). | |
| Pesticide residue | Chemicals that remain in food, soil and water after weed killers and other sprays have been used. |
| Photosynthesis | The biochemical process by which green plants make food from carbon dioxide and water using light energy from the sun. |
| Pine | Pines are conifers and produce softwood. They are extensively used for plantation forestry in Australia and New Zealand . The main species in South Australia and Victoria is Radiata pine. |
| Pine cone | The woody fruit of a conifer tree, made up of overlapping scales. |
| Plantation | Trees planted for the production of timber or other values. |
| Potable water | Water that is fit for drinking. |
| Preservation | Impregnating logs or sawn timber with chemical preservatives. |
| Pruning | Cutting branches from the trunk or crown of trees, often to promote the production of clearwood. |
| Pulp mill | Processing plant where debarked logs are mechanically or chemically reduced to paper pulp by separating the wood fibres. |
| Rainforests | Forests with a very dense canopy (70 to 100% cover) which allows little sunlight to penetrate to their lower levels. |
| Recharge area | The area within a catchment in which surface water (from rainfall, irrigationor streams) soaks into the soil and increases groundwater levels. |
| Recycling | Reusing materials that would otherwise be disposed of as waste. |
| Red gum | A native tree, also known as river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), that was once widely cut for its timber. Often found in Native Forest Reserves, generally near watercourses. |
| Regeneration | Regrowth of plants and trees, either naturally or resulting from management practices such as sowing seeds or planting tubestock. |
| Respiration | The process by which living organisms take in oxygen from the atmosphere and give out carbon dioxide. |
| Rotation length | The number of years between planting and harvesting a forest. The time varies with species, site conditions and growth rates. |
| Salinisation | The accumulation of salts in the soil, waterways or the water table to a level that causes damage to plants. |
| Saprophytes | Plants that live and feed on dead organic material (also see parasite). |
| Sapwood | The pale outer part of the wood of a tree which contains living cells. |
| Sclerophyll | Sclerophyll means 'hard-leaved' and refers to plant species that have developed drought-resistant leaves with thick cell walls and a heavy cuticle. |
| Seedling | A young plant grown from seed. |
| Silviculture | The management of forests for the production of timber products. |
| Slash | The leaves and branches left on the ground after harvesting operations. |
| Softwood | The open-grained wood of conifer species such as pines, firs and cedars. |
| Soil conservation | Prevention and control of soil erosion and degradation by careful land management. |
| Species | A population or group of individual plants or animals which are able to interbreed to produce fertile offspring and/or have common characteristics derived from a common gene pool. |
| Species diversity | The total number of different species and their relative abundance within a given area. |
| Stand | A crop of trees in a particular area, such as a forest. |
| Stomata | The pores on the surface of leaves that control the movement of gases into and out of plants. |
| Sustained yield | The quantity or amount of wood that can be harvested per year over an indefinite period without completely harvesting a forest. |
| Temperate forests | Temperate forests grow between the tropics and the polar regions in both the northern and southern hemispheres. They include temperate deciduous forests, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, temperate coniferous forests and temperate rainforests. Temperate forests have four distinct seasons, with a well-defined winter. |
| Thinning | The removal of some trees (usually of poorer quality) from a forest to reduce the competition for available resources. |
| Timber | Wood after it has been debarked, sawn and prepared for use in building or furniture manufacture. |
| Tissue culture | Producing new plants from very small pieces of plant tissue in a laboratory. Often used to grow species that are difficult to propagate by other means, or to produce desirable clones of a particular plant. |
| Transpiration | To lose water vapour through the stomata in the leaves of plants. |
| Turbidity | Cloudiness caused by suspended solids or soil sediment in water. |
| Understorey | The small trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses that make up the lower layers of vegetation in a forest, woodland or other habitat. |
| Watercourse | A stream, river or canal along which water runoff flows towards the ocean. |
| Watertable | The level of the water-saturated underground areas below the surface of the soil. |
| Waterway | A river, canal or other navigable channel used for travel or transport. |
| Weed | A plant species growing where it is not wanted (also see pest). |
| Weed control | Reducing competition with forest trees for water and nutrients. This can be done by physical methods (such as cultivation) or by using chemicals called herbicides. |
| Wetland | Any area of land that is regularly or occasionally inundated by water, including swamps, billabongs, mudflats, salt marshes and lakes. |
| Woodchips | Chips produced from either soft or hardwood logs and turned into paper and other paper products (also see chipping). |
| Woodland | A native plant community dominated by relatively openly-spaced trees (covering up to 30% of the land surface), often with a dense understorey. |
| Woodlots | Forest plantings on farms for wood production (also see farm forestry). |
Another useful resource is the National Association of Forest Industries website glossary of forestry terms at www.nafi.com.au/k12/ourforests/glossary.html
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- Page URL: http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/forestrymatters/glossary
- Page Last Modified: November 15, 2011