Briefings

Glossary of Terms

ABARE - Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics

ABS - Australian Bureau of Statistics

AFC - Australian Forestry Council

AFS - Australian Forestry Standard

Allocation - the right of access to a parcel of wood.

Balance of trade - the difference between the value of a country's exports and imports of merchandise or of goods and service.

Cable logging - operation where logs on steep slopes are removed with the use of cables above the ground.

Clearfelling - the most intense harvesting technique where virtually all trees are removed at one time. Often associated with plantation harvesting or land clearing for agriculture. As a forest management technique it is applied in particular forest types (e.g. karri) but habitat and seed trees are left. When regrown, forests are even aged.

Codes of practice - State regulations which control where and the way logging is conducted.

Compartment - series of logging coupes.

Coupe - smallest forest management area of varying size, shape and orientation from which logs for sawmilling are harvested. Coupes are regenerated after logging.

Formply - type of plywood used for moulding concrete.

Fine papers - writing, printing and cover papers with high quality characteristics.

Flitch - a large piece of sawn log intended for further cutting.

Gross domestic product - a major economic statistic, equivalent to gross national expenditure plus export of goods and services less imports of goods and services. It measures the output of economic activity.

Integrated harvesting - harvesting both sawlogs and pulpwood in a single operation. Can mean the removal of 90% of the canopy in a logging coupe in forest types that require full sun for regeneration. Seed trees, habitat trees and saplings remain.

Management plan - objectives and strategies, laid down by Forest Services, for the long term multiple use of State forests.

Medium density fibreboard - a kind of particleboard made by gluing and compressing small wood particles together.

Mouldings - architraves and door frames; usually made from tropical timbers because of their easy application.

Old-growth forest - the scientific definition adopted by the Regional Forest Agreements and used for Australia’s reporting commitments under the international ‘Montreal Process’ is “Ecologically mature forests where the effects of disturbances are now negligible.”

Plywood - wood panel formed by gluing and compressing thin sheets of veneer.

Pulp - material consisting of separate fibres used to make paper.

Pulpwood - Wood considered unsuitable for sawmilling and used for the production of woodchips, pulp, paper and wood panels.

Reconstituted wood products - wood products made by compressing particles or pieces of wood together.

Recovery rate - the proportion of timber recovered from a log for a particular purpose e.g. for sawn timber.

Royalties - fees paid for harvested timber to the Crown or private landowner.

Sawlogs - logs which are processed into sawn timber, veneer, poles and sleepers. The residue may be processed into woodchips or pulpwood.

Sawmill residues - are what is left after sawn timber has been cut from a log including roundbacks, shavings and sawdust.

Sawn timber - solid timber sawn into particular dimensions, to be used for construction or furniture.

Seasoned timber - solid timber which has been dried in a kiln or naturally.

Selective harvesting - is where small groups or single mature trees are removed, together with some thinning of the forest stand to encourage regeneration and maintain an uneven aged stand.

Thinning - the removal of trees from a stand to increase the growth rates of the remaining trees.

Value adding - processing of the raw material e.g. converting woodchips into paper is value adding.

Veneer - a thin layer or sheet of wood material either peeled or sliced from a length of log.

Woodchipping - production of small pieces of wood from pulpwood - the first stage of processing pulpwood into paper and fibreboard.

Woodchips - small pieces of pulpwood cut into particular dimensions for different purposes including pulp and paper manufacture and panel production.