Forest Terminology Explained

Glossary

While undertaking research, you or your students may come across some terms that may need explaining, so we have made it easy for you below.

*FURTHER INFORMATION: The Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (ABARES) has produced an "Australia's forests and forestry glossary" (2020) found here -
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/forestsaustralia/glossary

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W

Wet sclerophyll forests

Tall open eucalypt based forests that provide a major source of hardwood timber for processing. They grow very quickly, like fertile soil and high rainfall.

Wilderness

An area of land that has been least modified by modern technological society. The most undisturbed expanses of our natural landscapes.

Wildfire

A grass or bush fire which burns out of control. A fire which destroys areas of grassland or bush and can destroy buildings and cause the death of vegetation, animals and humans.

Wildlife corridor

A strip of vegetation retained between areas of used and unused land to allow wildlife to move from sites of activity to other habitat sites.

Windrow

A row of debris collected after the harvesting of a plantation. Debris collected to be burnt to prepare the site for replanting.

Wood

The hard, fibrous inner part of tree trunks, branches and stems. Tissue that lies underneath the bark of a plant. A source of timber.

Woodland

Plant communities dominated by trees whose crowns shade on average 10 to 30 per cent of the ground. The typical vegetation type in low rainfall and poor soil regions.