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Adaptation:
The process by which living things adjust to their environment;
also any attributes they have developed to this end.
Agroforestry:
The growing of trees for wood production in combination
with other agricultural pursuits.
Biodiversity:
All living things found in an ecosystem.
CALM:
The Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management.
Canopy:
Highest vegetation layer of a plant community, usually formed
by the crowns of the trees.
Clearfelling:
The most intense method of logging, where virtually all the
trees are removed at one time, leaving only habitat trees.
Decomposers:
Organisms that live by breaking down dead bodies,
releasing the minerals they contain.
Deforestation:
Clearing trees for timber, fuel, farmland or for
new settlements from a piece of land without the intention of
reforesting.
Dieback:
The
progressive dying back, from the top downward, of leaves and
branches and eventually often the whole plant. In Western Australia,
particularly applied to the effects of the root rot fungus
Phytophthora cinnamomi.
Ecologically
sustainable: Meeting
the needs of the present generation without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs from the
same source.
Ecology:
The
study of plants and animals in relation to their environment.
Ecosystem:
A virtually self contained system, consisting of a community
of plants and animals in a given habitat together with their
environment.
Endemic:
Occurring naturally in, and restricted
to one particular geographic region.
Eucalyptus:
A genus of flowering trees made up of about 700 species, mainly
native to Australia.
Evolution:
The long term process of change in organisms.
Extinction:
The dying out of a species of living thing, and its
complete disappearance from the earth.
Feral
animals: An introduced or domestic animal now living
in the wild, for example, cats, goats, pigs.
Food
chain: A chain of organisms, linked together because
each is food for the next in line. Energy passes from one level
to the next. All the food chains in an ecosystem are connected
together in a complex food web.
Gondwana:
The
land mass that included Australia, New Zealand and South America
before it spit up some 65 million years ago.
Habitat:
A specific area, small or large, that is inhabited by a particular
community of plants and animals.
Hectare:
An
area of 10 000 square metres, or 100 x 100 metres. There are
100 hectares in a square kilometre.
Indigenous:
Originating
or occurring naturally in a region.
Monoculture:
A crop of plants consisting of only one species, for example,
a pine plantation.
National
park:
Publicly-owned land managed by CALM for the purposes of conservation
and recreation.
Native
forests: Indigenous forest types. The great majority
of Australian forests are eucalypts.
Nature
reserve: Publicly-owned land managed by CALM for
the purpose of conservation.
Old
growth forest: Forest which has not had significant
unnatural disturbances altering its content or structure since
European settlement.
Plantations:
Trees usually of a single species planted on cleared
land for the purpose of growing a product such as wood.
Photosynthesis:
The process by which plants use the sun’s energy to transform
water and carbon dioxide into their food (carbohydrates).
Regeneration:
Re-establishment of native plants in areas from which
they have been removed.
Regrowth
forest: The forest that grows back after logging,
burning or some other unnatural disturbance.
Rotation
period: The planned number of years between the establishment
and the felling of trees.
Royalty:
A prescribed fee for forest produce payable to the owner of
the forest.
Salinity:
The concentration of salt in soil
or water, which is measured in milligrams per litre (mg/l).
Dryland salinity is salinity caused by the rise of saline water
tables through clearing of native vegetation.
Silviculture:
The science or practice of growing trees for wood production.
Soil
erosion: The process by which vital topsoil is lost
(mainly blown away by wind or washed by rain), having been loosened
by such activities as deforestation or inappropriate farming.
Eroded land may become barren.
State
forest: Publicly owned land managed by CALM mainly
for wood production.
Structural
diversity:
A full range of sizes, shapes and characteristics of trees and
the understorey in a forest.
Structural
timber:
Timber used in building construction.
Sustainable
forestry: Methods of forest management that do not
interfere with natural cycles or damage the ecological balance
of the forest.
Understorey:
Habitat provided by plants growing between trees under the canopy.
Unnatural
disturbance: Disturbance caused by modern technological
society such as logging, roading, clearing
and prescribed burning.
Value
adding: Processing of raw material into something
of higher monetary value, for example, timber into furniture.
Weed:
a
plant growing in a place where it does not normally occur and
is not wanted by humans.
Woodchipping:
The grinding of logs into small pieces of wood - the first stage
in the production of paper.
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