GLOSSARY
(Adapted from FEMAT 1993)
Adaptive management: a process that implements policy decisions in a systematic cycle of planning, acting, monitoring, and evaluating to continually improve and adjust management (see extended discussion on p. 2)
Disturbance: a force that causes significant change in ecosystem structure and/or composition through natural events such as fire, flood, wind, or earthquake, mortality caused by insects or disease outbreaks, or by human-caused events like the harvest of forest products.
Ecosystem: a unit consisting of interacting organisms and their environment (e.g. forest, wetland, watershed)
Ecosystem management: a strategy for managing whole ecosystems that provides for all the associated organisms, as opposed to managing individual species (see extended discussion on p. 3)
Late-successional forest: a forest in mature or old-growth condition, generally over 100 years old and starting when tree growth has begun to slow and species diversity has begun to increase
Late-Successional Reserve (LSR): a management designation in the Northwest Forest Plan (USDA Forest Service and USDI Bureau of Land Management 1994) with specific guidelines for protecting and enhancing old-growth forest conditions
Old-growth forest: the assemblage of plant species capable of occupying a site given the frequency of natural disturbances, usually characterized by multiple canopy layers and large trees, snags, and logs, and generally found in forests over 200 years old
Survey and Manage species: selected species that may not be protected by the current system of late-successional reserves; specific activities are required to locate and protect them.
Riparian area: an area containing an aquatic ecosystem and adjacent land areas that are affected by and directly affect it, including the floodplain and adjacent woodlands.
Site class: a measure of an areas relative capacity for producing timber, based on the height growth of the dominant trees
Viable population: a wildlife or plant population that contains sufficient numbers of reproductive individuals distributed across and area to ensure the long-term existence of the species
Watershed: the drainage basin contributing water and other materials to a stream or lake
Watershed analysis: a procedure for characterizing watershed and ecological processes occurring in an area to support management and social objectives (usually covering 5,000-50,000 ha [12,000-120,000 ac] watersheds).