Glossary
Conservation Technician Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential conservation technician terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key conservation technician vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in conservation technician training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Basal area
- The cross-sectional area of trees in a stand.
- Clinometer
- A tool for measuring tree height and slope.
- DBH
- Diameter at breast height, measured at 4.5 feet.
- Erosion control
- Measures to keep soil in place.
- GIS
- Geographic information systems.
- Increment borer
- A tool that takes a core to age a tree.
- Invasive species
- Non-native species that harm ecosystems.
- Plot
- A sample area used to measure forest conditions.
- Prescribed burn
- A planned fire to reduce fuels or restore habitat.
- Regeneration
- New tree growth after harvest or disturbance.
- Riparian area
- Land along streams and rivers.
- Silviculture
- The practice of managing forest growth.
- Stand
- A group of trees with similar characteristics.
- Thinning
- Removing some trees to improve growth of others.
- Timber cruise
- A survey to estimate timber volume.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Conservation Technician practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Conservation Technician training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.