§6703 Definitions

Summary

Defines key words used in the chapter. Adaptive ecosystem management is a way to manage natural resources that uses science, treats actions like experiments, accepts that systems are complex and uncertain, and uses new knowledge to change future practice; that definition does not apply for the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq.). Affected entities include land managers, stakeholders, concerned citizens, and the interior West States and their political subdivisions. A dry forest and woodland ecosystem is one dominated by ponderosa pines and similar dry types. The Institute is the one set up under section 6704(a). The interior West means Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. A land manager is a person or group that practices or guides natural resource management, including Federal, State, local, or tribal agencies. Restoration is work to move an ecosystem toward a sustainable structure or a condition that supports native species, function, or processes (for example, low‑intensity fire). The Secretary is the Secretary of Agriculture acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, and “Secretaries” means that Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior. A stakeholder is any person interested in or affected by forest or woodland management. The chapter also defines (without naming here) a term for trees that grow beneath the main canopy or are smaller and less vigorous than the dominant trees; a term for a site where tree numbers per acre exceed the site’s natural carrying capacity; and a term for a system’s ability to absorb disturbance without shifting into a different, possibly less desirable, stable state.