- Sacrifice area/site
- In range management, a site allowed to be overgrazed to obtain efficient overall
use of the management area. In cultural resource management, it may refer to
a site intentionally sacrificed to extensive public use in order to preserve the
larger cultural area.
- Sanitation salvage
- The removal of dead, damaged
or susceptible trees primarily to prevent the spread of pests or disease and promote
forest health.
- Sapling
- A loose term for a young tree more than a few feet tall and an inch or so in
diameter.
- Sawtimber
- Trees that are nine inches in diameter at breast height or larger that can be made
into lumber.
- Scoping
- Part of the NEPA process to determine public opinion, receive comments and suggestions,
and determine issues during the environmental analysis process. It may involve public
meetings, telephone conversations, or letters.
- Section 318 sales
- A 1989 congressional rider, pushed by Hatfield, that exempted 7.2 billion board
feet of timber from environmental rules and citizen appeals. All but about 470 mmbf
was deforested. The remaining sales were so detrimental to the last habitats of many
species (salmon, owls, murrellets being a few), they were withdrawn. Modifications
began to make them less damaging. It is these 470 mmbf that congress recently again
mandated their deforestation in the salvage logging
rider, without their modifications.
- Second growth
- Forest growth that is established after some kind of interference with the previous
forest crop, such as clear cutting.
- Seed tree harvest
- Removal of the mature timber crop from an area in one cut, except for a certain
number of seed bearers. See shelterwood.
- Seedlings
- Young trees under 4.5 feet in height.
- Sensitive species
- Plant or animal species which are susceptible to habitat changes or impacts from
activities. The official designation is made by the USDA Forest Service at the Regional
level and is not part of the designation of Threatened or Endangered Species made
by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
- Seral
- The stage of succession of a plant or animal community that is transitional.
If left alone, the seral stage will give way to another plant or animal community
that represents a further stage of succession.
- Shelterwood
- A cutting method used in a mature stand, designed to establish a new crop under
the protection of the old. Most trees are removed, except for about 6 large trees
per acre. These remaining trees are then harvested in about 5 years, after seedlings
are established. The end result looks like a clear-cut.
- Silviculture
- The art and science that promotes the growth of single trees and the forest as
a biological unit.
- Site preparation
- The general term for removing unwanted vegetation, slash, roots, and stones from
a site before reforestation. Prescribed fire is usually used (slash and burn).
- Site tree height
- The height of the average dominate tree in an area that is over 200 years old.
The tree should be disease and defect free, so in general, it is the height of one
of the best trees in an area. The calculation of the site tree height now is very
important since it determines how much buffer width to leave next to riparian areas.
- Size class
- One of the three intervals of tree stem diameters used to classify timber in
the Forest Plan data base. The size classes are: Seedling/Sapling (less than 5 inches
in diameter); Pole Timber (5 to 7 inches in diameter); Sawtimber (greater than 7
inches in diameter)
- Skidding
- Hauling logs by sliding, not on wheels, from stump to a collection point. This
produces skid roads.
- Skyline logging
- A logging system used to remove timber from steep slopes. Logs are brought up-slope
on a suspended cable, or skyline. Since the weight of the log is completely or partially
supported by the cable, there is slightly less impact.
- Slash
- The debris left on the ground after timber cutting or left after a storm, fire,
or other event. Slash includes unused logs, uprooted stumps, broken or uprooted stems,
branches, bark, etc.
- Slump
- A landslide where the underlying rock masses tilt back as they slide from a cliff
or escarpment. Slumps are sometimes caused by clear cutting on unstable soils.
- Snag
- A standing dead tree. Snags are important as habitat for a variety of wildlife
species and their prey. Most snags are felled in harvest operations.
- Soil compaction
- The reduction of soil volume. For instance, the weight of heavy equipment on
soils can compact the soil and thereby change it in some ways, such as in its ability
to absorb water. Compacted soil is a major problem, taking thousands of acres permanently
out of wildlife habitat. Trees will not grow in compacted soil.
- Special use permit
- A permit issued to an individual or group by the USDA Forest Service for use
of National Forest land for a special purpose.
- Stand
- A group of trees that occupies a specific area and is similar in species, age,
and condition.
- Standards and guidelines
- Requirements found in a Forest Plan which impose limits on natural resource management
activities, generally for environmental protection.
- Stocking level
- The number of tree in an area as compared to the desirable number of trees for
best results, such as maximum wood production.
- Stumpage price
- The monetary value of a forest.
-
- Successional stage
- A stage of development of a plant community as it moves from bare ground to climax.
The grass-forb stage of succession precedes the woody shrub stage.
- Succession
- The natural replacement, in time, of one plant community with another. Conditions
of the prior plant community (or successional stage) create conditions that are favorable
for the establishment of the next stage.
- Sustainability
- The ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes and functions, biological
diversity, and productivity over time.
- Sustainable
- The yield of a natural resource that can be produced continually from generation
to generation, without depleting the resource.
- Sustained yield
- Term used in the O&C Act of 1937. The yield that can be produced continuously by converting all the land to a tree plantation and logged rotationally.