Silvicultural Activities: Description and Terminology

Silvicultural Activities: Description and Terminology

Author: U.S. Forest Service

Summary:

Originally drafted by David C. Powell, a forest silviculturist at the U.S. Forest Service, this white paper outlines a consistent set of silviculture terms and their associated definitions in direct response to uncertainty about the proper application of silvicultural terminology in an era of ecosystem management.

Key Takeaways

  • In some situations, new terms were being coined to avoid old ones tainted with a timber production bias or because some old terms, such as “clearcutting,” were considered inflammatory.
  • In other instances, the new terms represented a conscious and deliberate effort to match the name of a term with predicted conditions or outcomes resulting from the application of ecosystem management or adaptive management concepts.