C

	Cable logging: a yarding system employing winches, blocks, and cables.
	Cambium: a single layer of cells between the woody part of the tree and the bark. Division of these cells results in diameter growth of the tree through formation of wood cells (xylem) and inner bark (phloem).
	Campfire: a fire, not bigger than 1 m in height and 1 m in diameter, built for the purpose of cooking or providing warmth.
	Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System: A susbsystem of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System. The components of the FWI System provide numerical ratings of relative fire potential in a standard fuel type (i.e. a mature pine stand) on level terrain, based solely on consecutive observations of four fire weather elements measured daily at noon (1200 hours local standard time or 1300 hours daylight saving time) at a suitable fire weather station; the elements are dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and precipitation. The system provides a uniform method of rating fire danger across Canada.
	Canopy: the forest cover of branches and foliage formed by tree crowns.
	Canopy closure: the progressive reduction of space between crowns as they spread laterally, increasing canopy cover.
	Capability mapping: a habitat interpretation for a species which describes the greatest potential of a habitat to support that species. Habitat potential may not be reflected by the present habitat condition or successional stage.
	Carbon balance: the concentration of carbon released into the atmosphere compared to the amounts stored in the oceans, soil and vegetation.
	Carrying capacity: the average number of livestock and/or wildlife that can be sustained on a management unit, compatible with management objectives for the unit. It is a function of site characteristics, management goals, and management intensity.
	Catchment basin: a hole dug adjacent to a culvert inlet to allow coarser particles to settle out.
	Certified pesticide applicator: an individual certified (through examination) by the Pesticide Management BRanch to use or supervise the use of pesticides in a specific management category.
	Chain: a measuring tape, often nylon, 50 m or 75 m in length, used to measure distances. This term is derived from an old unit of measurement: (80 Ch=1 mile).
	Characteristic visual landscape: the naturally appearing landscape within a scene or scenes being viewed.
	Chlorosis: blanched or yellowish coloring in plants caused by nutrient or light deficiency.
	Choker: a noose of wire rope used for skidding or yarding logs. See Highlead system.
	Christmas tree permit: a legal document that authorizes the holder to harvest, or grow and harvest, Christmas trees on Crown land.
	Class A streams: see Fisheries stream Class A.
	Classified areas: areas based on provincial criteria and classification systems which will be identified and mapped according to the Regulations and Field Guides of the Forest Practices Code: riparian management areas, lakeshore management areas, and wildlife habitat areas. These areas, established by a district manager in consultation with a designated B.C. Environment official, guide operations on a site-specific basis and require a combination of forest practices.
	Cleaning: a release treatment made in a stand not past the sapling stage to free the favoured trees from less desirable species of the same age that overtop them or are likely to do so.
	Clearcut: an area of forest land from which all merchantable trees have recently been harvested.
	Clearcutting: the process of removing all trees, large and small, in a stand in one cutting operation.
	Clearcutting silvicultural system: Defined as a silvicultural system that removes an entire stand of trees from an area of one hectare or more, and greater that two tree heights in width, in a single harvesting operation. A new even-aged stand is obtained by planting, natural or advanced regeneration or direct seeding. The opening size and dimensions created are generally large enough to limit significant microclimatic influence from the surrounding stand.
	Clearcutting with reserves: a variation of the clearcut silvicultural system in which trees are retained, either uniformly or in small groups, for purposes other than regeneration.
	Climax forest: a forest community that represents the final stage of natural forest succession for its environment.
	Clinometer: a simple instrument for measuring vertical angles or slopes. In forestry, used to measure distance and tree heights.
	Clone: a plant which is genetically identical to the parent plant. Produced asexually, e.g., from cuttings or suckers.
	Close utilization: maximum stump height of 30 cm; minimum top dib of 10 cm. See: Utilization standards.
	Closed canopy: the description given to a stand when the crowns of the main level of trees forming the canopy are touching and intermingled so that light cannot reach the forest floor directly.
	Coarse filter approach: an approach to maintaining biodiversity that involves maintaining a diversity of structures within stands and a diversity of ecosystems across the landscape. The intent is to meet most of the habitat requirements of most of the native species.
	Coarse Woody Debris (CWD): sound and rotting logs and stumps that provide habitat for plants, animals, and insects and a source of nutrients for soil development.
	Coast: that geographic area west of the Cascade Mountains, as officially delineated by the Cascade Mountains Administrative Line through British Columbia from Washington state to Alaska, including the lower Fraser River area south of Hell's Gate (south of Boston Bar), taking in the Coquihalla, Silverhope, and Skagit River drainages lying east of the line, but excluding the portions of the Kalum Forest District and Cariboo Forest Region lying west of the line.
	Codominant: in stands with a closed canopy, those trees whose crowns form the general level of the canopy and receive full light from above, but comparatively little from the sides. In young stands, those trees with above average height growth.
	Commercial thinning: a silviculture treatment that 'thins' out an overstocked stand by removing trees that are large enough to be sold as products such as poles or fence posts. It is carried out to improve the health and growth rate of the remaining crop trees.

Community watershed: Defined in the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act as:

a) the drainage area above the most downstream point of diversion on a stream for a water use that is for human consumption and that is licenced under the Water Act for:

i) a waterworks purpose, or;

ii) a domestic purpose if the licence is held by or is subject to the control of a water users' community watershed incorporated under the Water Act if the drainage area is not more than 500kmฒ and the water licence was issued before June 15, 1995, or;

b) an area that is designated as a community watershed under Subsection (10).

	Compartment: a geographic unit defined for the purposes of forest administration and inventory. The boundaries follow permanent physical features or legal demarcation where appropriate.
	Compass: instrument used to determine the direction of magnetic north.
	Competing vegetation: vegetation that seeks and uses the limited common resources (space, light, water, and nutrients) of a forest site needed by preferred trees for survival and growth.
	Composition: the proportion of each tree species in a stand expressed as a percentage of either the total number, basal area or volume of all tree species in the stand.
	Cone rake: a device for collecting cones from a standing tree. It is lowered, usually from a helicopter, over the crown of a tree. Cones or cone-bearing BRanches are removed and retrieved by the machine.
	Conifer: cone-bearing trees having needles or scale-like leaves, usually evergreen, and producing wood known commercially as 'softwoods'.
	Conifer release: to 'release' established coniferous trees from a situation in which they have been suppressed by thinning out undesirable trees and shrubs which have overtopped them. Carried out to improve the growth of the coniferous trees released. See Brushing.
	Conk: a hard, fruiting body containing spores of a wood-decaying fungus.
	Consensus option: a management option that has a broad base of community and interest group support.
	Consequences, potential: a component of risk rating. Potential consequences are the detrimental events that could result from a hazard event.
	Conservation: management of the human use of the biosphere so that it may yield the greatest sustainable benefit to present generations while maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations. It includes the preservation, maintenance, sustainable utilisation, restoration and enhancement of the environment.
	Conservation biology: the discipline that treats the content of biodiversity, the natural processes that produce it and the techniques used to sustain it in the face of human-caused environmental disturbance.
	Container seedling: seedling grown in small container in a controlled environment. See: Plug and bareroot seedling.
	Contour map: a topographic map which portrays relief by means of lines which connect points of equal elevation.
	Contractual framework: where forest practices are primarily regulated by contracts.
	Control points: a system of points with established positions or elevations, or both, which are used as fixed references in positioning map features.
	Conventional ground skidding: any combination of rubber-tired or tracked skidding equipment.
	Conventional logging: any combination of mechanical or hand felling and rubber-tired or tracked skidding equipment. In the interior, cable logging is not considered conventional; on the coast, it is.
	Coordinated Resource Management Plan (CRMP): a specific type of sub-unit plan. To date it has been used mainly for managing Crown and alienated grazing lands. This plan involves consultation with resource agencies and resource users in establishing objectives in the management and development of a specific area.
	Coppice (coppicing): the tendency of certain tree and brush species (such as red alder and bigleaf maple) to produce a large number of shoots when a single or few stems are mechanically removed but the root system left intact.
	Cord: 128 cubic feet of stacked roundwood (whole or split, with or without bark) containing wood and airspace, with all the pieces of similar length and lined up on approximately the same direction. Example: a pile of firewood 4'x4'x8'.
	Corduroy: logs placed transversely along a road, usually with branches intact, and covered with fill material, to "float" the road over soft subsoils.
	Corridor: a band of vegetation, usually older forest, which serves to connect distinct patches on the landscape. Corridors are part of the Forest Ecosystem Network (FEN) and by providing connectivity permit the movement of plant and animal species between what would otherwise be isolated patches.
	Critical wildlife habitat: part or all of a specific place occupied by a wildlife species or a population of such species and recognized as being essential for the maintenance of the population.
	Critical winter range: forested habitat, usually stands of mature or old-growth conifers, which provides deer and elk with resources critical to survival during severe winters.
	Crop tree: a tree in a young stand or plantation selected to be carried through to maturity until an interim or final harvest.
	Cross-ditch: a ditch excavated across the road at an angle and at a sufficient depth, with armoring as appropriate, to divert both road surface water and ditch water off or across the road.
	Cross-drain culvert: a culvert used to carry ditch water from one side of the road to the other.
	Crown: the live branches and foliage of a tree.
	Crown class: see Codominant, Dominant, Intermediate or Overtopped.
	Crown closure: the condition when the crowns of trees touch and effectively block sunlight from reaching the forest floor.
	Crown density: the amount, compactness or depth of foliage of a tree crown.
	Crown land: land that is owned by the Crown. Referred to as federal Crown land when it is owned by Canada, and as provincial Crown land when owned by a province.
	Cruise: the systematic measurement of a forested area designed to estimate to a specified degree of accuracy the volume of timber it contains, by evaluating the number and species of trees, their sizes and conditions.
	Cull: trees or logs or portions thereof that are of merchantable size but are rendered unmerchantable by defects.
	Culmination age: the age at which the stand, for the stated diameter limit and utilization standard, achieves its maximum average rate of volume production (the Mean Annual Increment, or MAI) is maximized.
	Cultural diversity: the variety and variability of human social structures, belief systems and strategies for adapting to biological situations and changes in different parts of the world.
	Cultural heritage resource: An object, a site or the location of a traditional societal practice that is of historical, cultural or archaeological significance to the province, a community or an aboriginal people. Cultural heritage resources include archaeological sites, structural features, heritage landscape features and traditional use sites.
	Culture: the sum of ways of living built up by a group of human beings, which is transmitted from one generation to another.
	Culvert: a transverse drain pipe or log structure covered with soil and lying below the road surface.
	Cumulative effects: effects on biota of stress imposed by more than one mechanism (e.g., stress in fish imposed by both elevated suspended sediments concentrations in the water and by high water temperature).
	Cut: the excavation required to lower the natural ground line to the desired road profile.
	Cut-and-fill: system of bench construction on hillslopes to produce road rights-of-way and landings whereby convex slopes are excavated and concave slopes (gullies) are filled; also, excavation of the upslope side of the right-of-way, and fill on the down slope side. (so called half-bench construction).
	Cut bank: the excavated bank from a ditch line to the top of the undisturbed slope of a road.
	Cut control: a set of rules and actions specified in the Forest Act that describes the allowable variation in the annual harvest rate either above or below the allowable annual cut approved by the chief forester.
	Cut period: the interval between major harvesting operations in the same stand.
	Cutblock: Defined in the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act as a specific area of land identified on a forest development plan, or in a licence to cut, road permit, or Christmas tree permit, within which timber is to be or has been harvested.
	Cutblock adjacency requirements: integrated resource management requirements that specify the desired spatial relationships among cutblocks.
	Cut slope: the face of an excavated bank required to lower the natural ground line to the desired road profile.
	Cutting authority: as defined in the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Cutblock and Road Review Regulation a cutting permit or an application for a cutting permit or a timber sale licence or a timber sale licence that has been advertised.
	Cutting cycles: the planned, recurring interval of time between successive cuttings in a crop or stand.
	Cutting permit: a legal document that authorizes the holder to harvest trees under a licence issued under the Forest Act. Cutting plan: a plan for harvesting the timber from an area defined within a cutting permit. This plan must be approved by the Forest Service before operations may begin.