Forest and Fire Glossary

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Abiotic Factors: The non-living components of the environment, such as air, rocks, soil, water, peat, and plant litter.

Afforestation: The establishment of trees on an area that has lacked forest cover for a very long time, or has never been forested.

Cambium: A single layer of cells between the woody part of the tree and the bark. Division of these cells result in diameter growth of the tree through formation of wood cells (xylem) and inner bark (phloem).

Canopy: The forest cover of branches and foliage formed by tree crowns.

Chain: A measuring tape, often nylon, 50 meters or 75 meters in length, used to measure distances. This term is derived from an old unit of measurement (80 Chains = 1 mile).

Class A Roof: Effective against severe fire test exposures, as classified by the Universal Building Code (UBC). Under such exposures, roof coverings of this class are not readily flammable, afford a fairly high degree of fire protection to the roof deck, do not slip from position, and are not expected to produce flying brands.

Class B Roof: Effective against moderate fire test exposures, as classified by the Universal Building Code (UBC). Under such exposures, roof coverings of this class are not readily flammable, afford a moderate degree of fire protection to the roof deck, do not slip from position, and are not expected to produce flying brands.

Class C Roof: Effective against light fire test exposure, as classified by the Universal Building Code (UBC). Under such exposures, roof coverings of this class are not readily flammable, afford a measurable degree of fire protection to the roof deck, do not slip from position, and are not expected to produce flying brands.

Clearcut: An area of forest land from which all merchantable trees have recently been harvested.

Climax Forest: A forest community that represents the final stage of natural forest succession for its locality, i.e. for its environment.

Coarse Woody Debris (CWD): Sound and rotting logs and stumps that provide habitat for plants, animals, and insects, and a source of nutrients for soil development.

Colorado Champion Tree: The largest known tree of its species in the state. Trees are ranked by a point system based on three measurements: trunk circumference in inches at 4.5 feet above the ground, tree height in feet, and the average crown spread in feet.

Commercial Thinning: A silviculture treatment that “thins” out an overstocked stand by removing trees that are large enough to be sold as poles or fence posts. It is carried out to improve the health and growth rate of the remaining crop trees.

Competing Vegetation: Vegetation that seeks and uses the limited common resources (space, light, water, and nutrients) of a forest site needed by preferred trees for survival and growth.

Conifer: Cone-bearing trees having needles or scale-like leaves, usually evergreen, and producing wood known commercially as “softwoods.”

Conservation: Management of the human use of the biosphere so that it may yield the greatest sustainable benefit to present generations while maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations. It includes the preservation, maintenance, sustainable utilization, resoration, and enhancement of the environment.

Deciduous: Perennial plants that are normally leafless for some time during the year.

Defensible Space: An area within the perimeter of a parcel, development, neighborhood, or community where basic wildland fire protection practices and measures are implemented, providing the key point of defense from an approaching wildfire or defense against encroaching wildfires or escaping structure fires. The perimeter as used herein is the area encompassing the parcel or parcels proposed for construction and/or development, excluding the physical structure itself. The area is characterized by the establishment and maintenance of emergency vehicle access, emergency water reserves, street names and building identification, and fuel modification measures. In simplest terms, it is adequate space between structures and flammable vegetation which allows firefighters a safe working area from which they can attack an oncoming wildfire. Defensible Space is the best element of fire protection for individual property owners.

Defoliator: An agent that damages trees by destroying leaves or needles.

Deforestation: The removal of a forest stand where the land is put to a nonforest use.

Eave Opening: A vent located in an eve or soffit which allows airflow into the attic and/or walls of a structure.

Ecosystem: A functional unit consisting of all the living organisms (plants, animals, microbes) in a given area, and all the non-living physical and chemical factors of their environment, linked together through nutrient cycling and energy flow. An ecosystem can be of any size – a log, pond, field, forest, or the earth’s biosphere – but it always functions as a whole unit. Ecoystems are commonly described according to the major type of vegetation; for example, forest ecosystem, old-growth ecosystem, or range ecosystem.

Felling: The cutting down of trees.

Fire Dependent: Requiring one or more fires of varying frequency, timing, severity, and size in order to achieve optimal conditions for population survival or growth.

Fire Hazard Mitigation: Various methods by which existing fire hazards can be reduced in a certain area, such as fuel breaks, non-combustible roofing, spark arresters, etc.

Fire Management: The activities concerned with the protection of people, property, and forest areas from wildfire and the use of prescribed burning for the attainment of forest management and other land use objectives, all conducted in a manner that considers environmental, social, and economic criteria.

Fire Suppression: All activities concerned with controlling and extinguishing a fire following its detection.

Forest Fire: Any wildfire or prescribed burn that is burning in forest, grass, alpine, or tundra vegetation types.

Forest Type: A group of forested areas or stands of similar composition (species, age, height, and stocking) which differentiates it from other such groups.

Fuel: Any living or dead material that will burn.

Fuelbreak: An existing barrier or change in fuel type (to one that is less flammable than that surrounding it) or a wide strip of land on which the native vegetation has been modified or cleared, that acts as a buffer to fire spread so that fires burning into them can be more readily controlled. Often selected or constructed to protect a high value area from fire.

Fuel Management: The act or practice of controlling flammability and reducing resistance to control of wildland fuels through mechanical, chemical, biological, or manual means, or by fire in support of land management objectives.

Germination: The development of a seedling from a seed.

Ladder Fuels: Fuels that provide vertical continuity between the surface fuels and crown fuels in a forest stand, thus contributing to crown fires.

Maximum Density: The maximum allowable stand density above which stands must be spaced to a target density of well-spaced, acceptable stems to achieve free-growing status.

Phloem: A layer of tree tissue just inside the bark that conducts food from the leaves to the stem and roots.

Pitch Tubes: A tubular mass of resin that forms on bark surface at bark-beetle entrance holes.

Prescribed Burning: Controlled application of fire to wildland fuels, in either their natural or modified state, under certain conditions of weather, fuel moisture, soil moisture, etc. as to allow the fire to be confined to a predetermined area and at the same time to produce results to meet planned land management objective.

Regeneration: The act of renewing tree cover by establishing young trees, naturally or artificially – note regeneration usually maintains the same forest type and is done promptly after the previous stand or forest was removed.

Sapwood: The light-colored wood that appears on the outer portion of a cross-section of a tree.

Serotinous: Pertaining to fruit or cones that remain on a tree without opening for one or more years – note in some species cones open and seeds are shed when heat is provided by fires or hot and dry conditions.

Silviculture: The art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, compostition, health, and quality of forests and woodlands. Silviculture entails the manipulation of forest and woodland vegetation in stands and on landscapes to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society on a sustainable basis.

Snag: A standing dead tree or part of a dead tree from which at least the smaller branches have fallen.

Stand: A continuous group of trees sufficiently uniform in age-class distribution, composition, and structure, and growing on a site of sufficiently uniform quality, to be a distinguishable unit.

Succession (or Ecological Succession): The replacement of one plant and/or animal species over time by another in progressive development toward climax vegetation.

Thinning: A cutting made in an immature crop or stand primarily to accelerate diameter increment, but also, by suitable selection, to improve the average form of the tree that remain.

USDAFS: United States Department of Agriculture - Forest Service, what is commonly known as just "The Forest Service"

Windbreak: A strip of trees or shrubs maintained mainly to alter windflow and microclimates in the sheltered zone, usually farm buildings.

Wildland Urban Interface (WUI): The geographical meeting point of two diverse systems - wildland and structures. In the WUI, structures and vegetation are sufficiently close so that a wildland fire could spread to structures or a structure fire could ignite vegetation.