Forestry
What is the term for a timber harvesting practice where most of the trees in a given area are harvested at the same time?
Clear-cutting
What is the term for a Fire that is extremely hot and travels from treetop to treetop?
Crown Fires
What is the term for any method of surface coal mining that destroys a mountaintop or ridgeline, whether or not the mined area will be returned to what is legally described as the “approximate original contour?”
Mountaintop Mining
What is the name of the government agency responsible for managing public rangelands for various uses and values, including livestock grazing, recreational opportunities, healthy watersheds, and wildlife habitat?
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
What is the term for a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or other special interest, which is managed for purposes of conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research?
(Nature) Reserve
What is the term for the harvesting of mature timber without causing undue damage to adjacent standing growth?
Selective Cutting
What is the term for a fire that is meticulously planned, ignited intentionally, and managed throughout?
Controlled or Prescribed Fire
What is the term for a group of mining methods that use water to separate valuable minerals or ores from the surrounding sediment?
Placer Mining
What is the term for the rapid expansion of the geographic extent of cities and towns, often characterized by low-density residential housing, single-use zoning, and increased reliance on the private automobile for transportation?
Urban Sprawl
What is the term for land degradation in typically dry areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities?
Desertification
What is the term for a type of managed forest in which the trees are planted (as opposed to naturally regenerated), of the same age and generally of the same species, and are intended to maximize the production of wood fiber?
Tree Plantation
What type of cones only release their seeds during a major fire event?
Serotinous Cones
What is the term for the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore?
Tailings
What is the Land Use type is defined by a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs and grasses between 1 and 3 meters (m) in height?
Shrubland or Grassland
What is the term for the increase of salt concentration in soil and is, in most cases, caused by dissolved salts in the water supply?
Salinization
What is the term for a naturally regenerated forest of native species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed?
Old-growth Forest
What is the term for the predictable pattern of regrowth an ecosystem follows in the wake of a disturbance, be it natural or human in cause?
Secondary Succession
What is the term for the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body?
Overburden
What is the land use type that is made up of 3% of the US land area, but represents 82% of the US population?
Urban Areas
What is the term for a land management plan involving the growing of trees in association with food crops or pastures?
Agroforestry
What is the term for a layer or multiple layers of branches and foliage at the top or crown of a forest’s trees?
Canopy
What is the term for species are able to withstand a degree of burning and continue growing despite damage from fire?
Fire Tolerant or Fire Resistant Species
What is the name of the law that governs the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States, by creating two programs, one for regulating active coal mines and a second for reclaiming abandoned mine lands?
the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA)
What is the term for planned economic and community development that attempts to curb urban sprawl and worsening environmental conditions?
Smart Growth
What is the term for the right a government has to take private property for public use by virtue of the superior dominion of the sovereign power over all lands within its jurisdiction?
Eminent Domain