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• NEPA Planning Document Definitions (BLM)

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

a) The process of implementing policy decisions as scientifically driven management experiments that test predictions and assumptions in management plans, and using the resulting information to improve the plans.  (FEMAT, IX-1)

b) A continuing process of action-based planning, monitoring, researching, evaluating, and adjusting with the objectives of improving implementation and achieving the goals of the selected alternative. (FSEIS Feb. 94, Glossary-1)

c) 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.

b) An are 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 are such as 1-20 years or 21-40 years.

b) A land area the is designated to block or absorb unwanted impacts to the area beyond the buffer.  Buffer strips along a trail could block views that may be undesirable.  Buffers may be set aside next to wildlife habits to reduce abrupt change to the habitat.

A tree belonging to the order Gymnospermae, comprising a wide range of trees that are mostly evergrees.  Conifers bear cones (hence, confierous) and needle-shaped or scalelike leaves. (FEMAT, IX-7)

b) The linkage of similar but separated vegetation stands by patches, corridors, or "stepping stones" of like vegetation.  This term can also refer to the degree to which similar habitats are linked.

b) Elements of the landscape that connect similar areas,  Streamside vegetation may create a corridor of willows and hardwoods between meadows where wildlife feed.

Under the Endangered Species Act, critical Habitat is defined as (1) the specific areas within the geographic area occupied by a federally listed species on which are found physical and biological features essential to the conservation of the species, and that may require special management considerations or protection; and (2) specific areas outside the geographic area occupied by a listed species, when it is determined that such areas are essential for the conservation of the species. (FEMAT, IX-8)

b) Recreation that requires facilities that, in turn, result in concentrated use of the area.  For examples skiing requires ski lifts, parking lots, buildings, and roads.  Campgrounds require roads, picnic tables, and toilet facilities.

b) An ecological system, consisting of living organisms and nonliving components, as well as, flows and other processes, and the links and interrelationships among them from which "systems" properties, such as resilience and ecosystem function, emerge.  While an ecosystem can occur on any scale, it is often convenient (for analysis, management, or other purposes) to delineate it as a geographic area, with its boundaries demarcating an area where links within the system are stronger than links with adjacent systems. (Ecosystem Analysis at the Watershed Scale v 2.2, p. 24)

b) The transition zone between two biotic communities, such as between the Ponderosa pine forest type and the mixed conifer forest, which is found at higher elevations than the pine.

b) A lowland adjoining a watercourse.  At a minimum, the area is subject to a 1% or greater chance of flooding in a given year.

b) The splitting or isolating of patches of similar habitat, typically forest cover, but including other types of habitat.  Habitat can be fragmented naturally or from forest management activities, such as clear-cut logging.

b) GIS is both a database designed to handle geographic data as well as a set of computer operations that can be used to analyze the data.  In a sense, GIS can by thought of as a higher order map.

b) A method of tree harvest in which trees are removed periodically in small groups.  This silvicultural treatment results in small openings that form mosaics of age class groups in the forest.

b) A stream that flows only at certain times of the year when it receives water from streams or from some surface source, such as melting snow.

b) Land allocation under the Northwest Forest Plan with the objective to protect and enhance conditions of late-successional and old-growth forest ecosystems that serve as a habitat for late-successional and old-growth forest related species, including the northern spotted owl.  Limited stand management is permitted, subject to review by the Regional Ecosystem Office. (S&G Jan 2001, p. 77)

b) The least fragmented, most continuous pattern element of landscape; the vegetation type that is most continuous over a landscape.

Management of the public lands and their various resource values so that they are utilized in the combination that will best meet the present and future needs of the American people.  Making the most judicious use of the land for some or all of these resources or related services over areas large enough to provide sufficient latitude for periodic adjustments in use to conform to changing needs and conditions.  The use of some land for less than all of the resources.  A combination of balanced and diverse resource uses that takes into account the long-term needs of future generations for renewable and nonrenewable resources, including, but not limited to, recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, wildlife and fish, and natural scenic, scientific, and historic values.  Harmonious and coordinated management of the various resources without permanent impairment of the productivity of the land and the quality of the environment.  This combination in not necessarily the one that will give the greatest dollar return or greatest unit output. (FEMAT, IX-22)