Terminology

These terms are used in daily forest operations:

1801 – 1997	First number is the item technical standard second number is the year of legislation.
AS / NZS	Australian & New Zealand Standards
Buffer Zone	Distance that you have to stay away from swamps, creeks, waterways and native vegitation
Butt	The large lower end of a stem.
Chassis	The main frame structure that the compents of the machine is attached to (e.g. cabin, crane, wheels, engine)
Chip	Timber used to heat local timber mill boilers and an export product
Clear Felling	Fell all of the tress on the site
Code of practice	Practical guidance to persons who have duties or obligations under OH&S Act or regulations specific to their industry standards
Coupe	Refers to a single block or stand of trees.
Coupe plan	A document outlining harvesting requirements, exclusion zones, Heritage & Archaeological site, hazards / risks and map
dB	Decibels (noise levels)
Defects	Features of a stem /log that reduce the quality and value of a log.
Delimbing knives	Sharpened steel knives that rest against or grip around the stem, designed to slice through the branches where they join the stem.
Dominant tree length	Distance of the tallest tree length
Exclusion Zones	Areas that you are not to take machines
Extraction	The picking up of logs in the forest with the forwarder and moving them out onto the logging track ready for transport
Filter Strip	Grassy area where water filters through as it runs down a slope
FOPS	Falling Object Protective Structure designed to protect the machine operator from falling objects that hit the cab
Gullet Row	The row that is completely cut out in a thinning operation
Grouser Bars	The bars that are on the track pleats
Hazard	Is something with the potential to cause harm?
Hazard zone	A zone surrounding a machine or operation in which hazards make it unsafe for exposed manual workers and other machines to be in.
Kink	A sharp bend in a tree stem
Knot	Portion of a branch enclosed in wood by the natural growth of a tree
Large end diameter	(LED) The diameter of the larger (or lower) end of the log, usually expressed under bark
Log grade specification	Dimensional and quality features that define a grade
Malformed	A stem defect involving branch or stem growth, malformations include fork, sweep kink and wobble.
Mechanisation	The use of machines to carry out selected tree harvesting phases including felling, delimbing and processing
OH&S	Occupational Health and Safety, everyone’s broad responsibilities are described in the (OH&S Act 2004).
Phase	A step in the logging process, for example, fell, extract, process and load
Pleat	Individual plates on the machine tracks
Potentiometer	Electronic adjustment for ground speed on some forestry machines.
PPE	Personal protective equipment designed and worn to provide protection for workers includes helmet, high visibility clothes, safety boots and earmuffs
Preservation	Posts and rail logs.
Production	The volume or weight of logs handled in a day by either the whole operation (e.g., crew daily production) or for an individual phase (e.g., trees felled per day)
Productivity	The volume or weight of logs handled in a productive hour
Pulp	Timber used in the manufacture of paper
Ribbon Style Bunching	Bunching trees straight up the gullet row
Risk	Is the likelihood that illness, injury or even death might result because of the hazard
ROPS	Roll Over Protective Structure designed to protect machine operators of wheeled and tracked machines in the event of a roll over.
Rotation	Rotation of plantations
Saw log	This product is milled and used for building materials
Single cut	A single felling cut made from the back to the front of the tree
Slash	Waste material from trees
Slew	Left to right swing action of the crane
Small end diameter	(SED) The diameter of the smaller (or upper) end of the log
Snigging	The method used to move whole trees with a skidder (e.g. skid or snig whole trees)
SOP	Safe Operating Procedures
Split	A crack or fracture of the log visible in the cut log end
Stress Fractures	Hir line cracks in metal or metal that is starting to bend
Sweep	A single deviation from a straight line along the length of a log
Tail Swing	Movement of the back end of an excavator
Thinning	Cutting selected stems from a stand
Tolerance	A length allowance defined by the Forest Company or customer to accommodate variations in log length about the specification length
Widow maker	Any loose overhead debris such as limbs or tree tops that may fall at any time