Ecological Forestry
Glossary

Buffer - an area of vegetation that is left or managed to reduce the impact of a treatment or action of one area on another.

Cambium layer - the narrow zone of cells between the inner bark and sapwood. It is the growth layer that produces new bark and wood.

Canopy - the cover of branches and foliage formed by the crowns of trees.

Clearcut - a harvest where all trees are removed from a given block or forest area.

Clearcut-replant-herbicide cycle - a common cycle in industrial-style forestry, producing an even-aged stand of one or more species.

Closed canopy - the condition that exists when the canopy created by trees or shrubs or both is dense enough to exclude most of the direct sunlight from the forest floor.

Cogeneration system - a facility that burns wood to produce steam and electricity.

Dominant trees - trees with crowns extending above the general level of the crown cover and receiving full sunlight from above.

Early successional trees - the initial trees in an ecological succession, for example, gray birch and pin cherry. Late successional trees - the climax trees in an ecological succession, capable of perpetuating themselves if left undisturbed. These include sugar maple, beech, yellow birch, white pine, hemlock and red spruce on most sites. Mixed wood forest - a forest com- posed of different species of trees, usually including coniferous and deciduous trees.

Monoculture - the use of land for growing one type of crop.

Mycorrhizal fungi - fungi that form a beneficial symbiotic association with plant roots.

Natural regeneration - seedlings, stump sprouts or root suckers that are growing on site without being planted by humans.

Natural selection forestry - a system where individual trees that nature has selected for removal are harvested. This is an ideal system for handling mixed wood, uneven-aged Acadian forests.

Restructured - changed from one level of succession to another. An example is a mixed wood stand with a low percentage of Acadian species in which succession is speeded up by removing some of the shorter-lived species.

Shade intolerant species - those trees which cannot reproduce and grow under shade of other trees.

Shade tolerant species - those trees which are able to reproduce and grow under shade of other trees.

Strip cut - a narrow clearcut, offering more protection from sun and wind than larger clearcuts.

Uneven-aged forests - stands that have trees of different ages.

Wildlife tree - a dead or partially dead tree that is used in some way by one or more forms of wildlife.

This series of webpages is based on the booklet "Wildlife and Woodlands - What you can Do !" written by Gary Schneider. This booklet reflects the views of the Environmental Coalition of Prince Edward Island independent of federal and provincial government departments. If your interested in receiving a hardcopy of this booklet, please see our publications page. Web development and maintenance by Chris Martin.