About the Cooperative: Glossary of Terms
Annual
A plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season.
Blacklining
Preburning of fuels adjacent to a control line before igniting a prescribed burn. Blacklining is usually done in heavy fuels adjacent to a control line during periods of low fire danger to reduce heat on holding crews and lessen chances for spotting across control line.
Broadcast burning
Prescribed burning at a time when the fire would carry through the unit, burning most of the available fuels. This would be applied in the late summer or fall when the fire would be controlled by pre-established control lines with ignition patterns in concert with the terrain features and wind direction as well as using natural barriers, and or diurnal temperatures and humidity changes.
Endangered
Under the Endangered Species Act, a species is endangered if it is in danger of extinction within all or a significant portion of its range.
Helitorch
Helitorches are used by helicopters for aerial ignition of all types of large-scale prescribed fires. A 55-gallon tank supplies special fuel to a propane ignition system which then supplies a uniform stream of fire to the targeted area.
Invasive weed
A species (usually non-indigenous) that establishes easily and spreads aggressively into new areas and environments, often with detrimental effects on native plant species, the ecosystem and the economy.
Jackpot burning
Prescribed burning of concentrations of woody fuels during the late fall, winter or spring, preferably when the ground is partially frozen or wet. This method burns the fine fuels, limits the ability of the fire to spread and prevents soil sterilization from excessive heat. It is conducive to maintaining the herbaceous plants species growing under downed junipers.
Noxious weed
According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Plant Protection Act, a “Noxious Weed” is “any plant or plant product that can directly or indirectly injure or cause damage to crops (including nursery stock or plant products), livestock, poultry or other interests of agriculture, irrigation, navigation, the natural resources of the United States, the public health, or the environment”.
Perennial
A plant that lives for more than two years.
Phase I juniper woodlands
This early stage of juniper encroachment involves an actively-expanding, open canopy of young trees (usually 40 years old or younger), exhibiting no die-off of lower limbs. The trees are a subordinate component of the plant community. Active recruitment is taking place (tree seedlings in the shrub layer). Grasses, forbs, and shrubs are able to express their full productive potential, apparently uninhibited by competition from juniper. In this stage, little or no observable change in plant community composition or in soil cover and overland flow can be attributed to juniper (Miller et al. 2005).
Phase II juniper woodlands
This mid-successional stage of juniper encroachment entails an actively expanding canopy of trees now co-dominant in the plant community. In this phase, the maturing juniper may produce berries at moderate to high levels. Depending on several site factors, shrubs may die off as the network of shallow juniper roots begins to extend its occupation of the upper soil profile (Miller et al. 2005).
Phase III juniper woodlands
At this stage, occupation of a site by juniper is complete, and juniper and its effects dominate the site. Full grow-out of the surface root network concludes; the tree’s leader growth has slowed; berry production has declined and tree recruitment is limited. Biotic and abiotic conditions on the site are visibly degraded. Shrub die-off will likely exceed 75 percent. Understory plant production declines, as do species richness and diversity. In the tree interspaces, the loss of understory plant cover exposes bare soil. Soil organic matter declines, and raindrop impact promotes physical crusting of the soil surface, reducing infiltration rates and, on sloping sites, overland flow and soil erosion increase (Miller et al. 2005).
Plastic sphere dispenser (PSD)
A device installed in a helicopter which injects glycol into a plastic sphere containing potassium permanganate, which is then expelled from the machine and aircraft. This produces an exothermic reaction resulting in ignition of fuels on the ground for prescribed or wildland fire applications. It is commonly described by wildland prescribed fire personnel as “the ping pong ball machine.”
Riparian
The interface between land and a stream.
Sagebrush
Any of several North American composite subshrubs of the genera Artemis or Seriphidium. Artemisia tridentata (also called sagebrush/common sagebrush, big sagebrush, blue/black sagebrush or mountain sagebrush) is a shrub or small tree from the family Asteraceae. It is a coarse, hardy silvery-grey bush with yellow flowers and grows in arid sections of the western United States and Western Canada. It is the primary vegetation across vast areas of the Great Basin desert. Along rivers or in other relatively wet areas, sagebrush can grow as tall as 3 m (10 feet), but is more typically ~1 m tall.
Threatened
Under the Endangered Species Act, a species is threatened if it is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.
Western juniper (Juniperius occidentalis)
Aromatic evergreen tree in the cypress family, found at 800-3,000 m throughout arid and mesic climates of the Northwestern US.
