Tree Talk: Valuable Vocabulary For The Budding Forester

Garrett Dietz

Garrett Dietz is a public information officer in the DNR’s Office of Communications.

When you're just getting into a new interest, hobby or profession, you often hear jargon or acronyms that leave you scratching your head in confusion. That’s especially true in forestry, where many common terms and phrases sound like they refer to something completely different.

With Arbor Day fast approaching, you might be considering planting trees or doing other work to mark the importance of healthy, vibrant forests here in Wisconsin. To help you understand what your fellow forest enthusiasts are talking about, let’s break down some of the words you might hear when discussing trees, timber harvests or forest management.

• Bole: The main trunk of a tree below the branches, it is the section of the tree usually used to make lumber.

• Duff: Not a made-up word, surprisingly, and in this case it has no connection to golf. It is the layer of partially decomposed organic material (leaves, twigs, fruit, etc.) on the forest floor that protects seeds and provides key nutrients for the soil. It also creates important habitat for everything from bugs to amphibians.

• Snag: It’s the bane of many an angler. However, in forestry, it refers to a standing dead tree. This can occur naturally or through the intentional efforts of a property manager looking to increase habitat for small mammals, insects or cavity-nesting birds like woodpeckers.

• Girdle: The word means “to encircle.” In fashion, it refers to a belt or sash. In forestry, it’s the process of cutting or scoring through the bark and, just beneath that, the cambium cell layer around a tree trunk. This prevents nutrient flow from the roots to the leaves, eventually killing the tree. Girdling is a way to eliminate undesirable trees from a property or to purposely create snags — those beneficial dead trees — for wildlife habitat.

• Buck: In a forestry context, this has nothing to do with “da tirdy-pointer” or deer season. It actually refers to the process of cutting a felled tree into shorter lengths, such as for sawlogs or firewood.

• Stumpage: This is the value of standing timber before it’s cut. If you get a quote from a company to harvest a timber stand, they’ll often provide this number.

• Cord/Face Cord: Firewood or pulpwood that takes up 128 cubic feet (4 x 4 x 8 feet) is referred to as a cord. The measurement got its name from the ropes historically used to measure and tie firewood together. A face cord is the same width and height as a full cord, but it’s made up of shorter pieces (less than 4 feet deep), hence you’re only seeing the “face,” or front, of a full cord.

• Mast: In this context, it is unrelated to sailing or sailboats. It’s actually a term for the fruit produced by a tree or shrub. Usually, you’ll hear this further delineated into “hard” and “soft” mast. Hard mast refers to hard-shelled fruits like acorns or walnuts, while soft mast refers to berries or fruits such as apples or cherries.

Learn more about forestry and forest management in Wisconsin on the DNR's Forestry webpage.