Access Glossary

Items starting with P

Pole Timber

Trees at least 5 inches in diameter, but smaller than the minimum size for sawtimber.

Pole/sapling

The stage of forest succession in which trees are between 3 and 7 inches in diameter and are the dominant vegetation.

An area including those previously identified in the Forest Service Roadless Area Conservation, Final Environmental Impact Statement, Volume 2, dated November 2000, in a unit plan, or in a land management plan, which remain essentially roadless and undeveloped, and which have not yet been designated as wilderness or for non-wilderness uses by law (FSM 1905).

Pre-commercial thinning

The removal of trees not for immediate financial return but to reduce stocking,to concentrate growth on the more desirable trees, or to accomplish some other resource objective such as fuel reduction.

Pre-existing Use

Predator

Preparatory Cut

The removal of trees near the end of a rotation to open the canopy so the crowns of seed bearing trees can enlarge. This improves seed production and encourages natural regeneration. (See rotation.)

Prescribed burning

The fire management technique of purposely igniting a fire in a vegetated ecosystem to restore forest health and to reduce fire hazard.

Prescribed Fire

Fire set intentionally in wildland fuels under prescribed conditions and circumstances. Prescribed fire can rejuvenate forage for livestock and wildlife or prepare sites for natural regeneration of trees.