Glossary of Terms

Non-living. Climate is an abiotic component of ecosystems.

See "Implementation Plan."

A type of natural resource management that implies making decisions as part of an on-going process. Monitoring the results of actions will provide a flow of information that may indicate the need to change a course of action. Scientific findings and the needs of society may also indicate the need to adapt resource management to new information.

A National Forest, a National Grassland, a purchase unit, a land utilization project, Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Land Between the Lakes, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, or other comparable unit of the National Forest System.

Removing logs from a timber harvest area by helicopter. Fewer roads are required, so the impact to an area is minimized.

The natural environment that exists at the present time in an area being analyzed.

An age grouping of trees according to an interval of years, usually 20 years. A single age class would have trees that are within 20 years of the same age, such as 1-20 years or 21-40 years.

A geographic area that shares the same air.

An area of land designated and managed for the grazing of livestock by one or more livestock operators with a prescribed number of livestock for a prescribed period of time. It generally consists of public lands, but may include parcels of private and other Federal or State owned lands. Though an entire area may be divided into allotments, all land will not be grazed, because other uses, such as recreation or tree plantings, may be more important at a given time.

Any process used to prevent, manage, or resolve conflicts using procedures other than traditional courtroom litigation or formal agency adjudication.