Suggested Citation:"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A Century of Wildland Fire Research: Contributions to Long-term Approaches for Wildland Fire Management: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24792.
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Glossary
| Crown fire | A forest fire that has ascended from the ground into the forest canopy and spreads from treetop to treetop, often with great speed. |
| Ecoregion | An ecological and geographically defined area with geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species. |
| Fire regime | The range of variability in fire characteristics in a given area over a set period of time. It includes fire frequency, predictability, intensity, seasonality, and size. |
| Fuels treatment | Any measurable procedure taken to lower the risk of wildfires by managing vegetation to reduce hazardous fuels. Example actions include prescribed burning and mechanical thinning of forests. |
| Light burning | The use of fire at regular intervals as a management tool for ecosystem or livelihood objectives. |
| Line officer | The official responsible for administering policy on an area of public land. The official has full authority for making decisions about and providing direction to the firefighting effort. |
| Managed wildfire | Any unplanned wildfire used to meet specific objectives. |
| Mosaic | Burned habitat patches of different sizes and degrees of severity in proximity to one another as a result of a wildland fire or a history of wildland fires. |
Suggested Citation:"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A Century of Wildland Fire Research: Contributions to Long-term Approaches for Wildland Fire Management: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24792.
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| Prescribed fire | Any planned fire ignited by management actions to meet specific objectives. |
| Wildfire | Unplanned fire in wildland, regardless of ignition source. |
| Wildland fire | A general term describing any nonstructure fire that occurs in wildland areas and burns natural fuels, such as trees and grass. |
| Wildland–urban interface | A zone where structures and other human developments meet and intermingle with undeveloped wildland. |
| Woodsburning | The regular burning of forested areas, a practice common in the southeastern United States. |
Suggested Citation:"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A Century of Wildland Fire Research: Contributions to Long-term Approaches for Wildland Fire Management: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24792.
×
Suggested Citation:"Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. A Century of Wildland Fire Research: Contributions to Long-term Approaches for Wildland Fire Management: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24792.
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