Forestry Terms  - P -

PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES: Any remains, trace, or imprint of a plant or animal that has been preserved in the Earth's crust since some past geologic time.

• Invertebrate Fossil: Remains, including casts and molds, of animals without backbones and not classed as a microfossil
• Microfossil: Fossilized remains of organisms that are too small to be studied without the aid of a microscope
• Petrified Wood: Material formed by the replacement of the wood by silica in such a manner that the original form and structure is preserved
• Plant: Members of the plant kingdom excluding petrified wood and microfossils
• Trace: Indirect evidence of life, such as tracks, trails, burrows, and coprolites
• Vertebrate Fossil: Remains, including casts and molds, of animals with skulls and internal skeletons

PARCEL: See LAND LOCATION (Metes and Bounds).

PARENT MATERIAL: Parent Material is the unconsolidated organic and mineral material in which soil forms. Some soils have formed from the weathering of bedrock in place; however, other soils have formed from material that has been transported from the site of the parent rock and redeposited at a different location through the action of glacial ice, water, wind or gravity.

PARTICLE SIZE: The effective diameter of a particle measured by sedimentation, sieving, or micrometric methods. Particle size distribution is the percent by weight of sand, silt, and clay in a soil sample of a soil horizon excluding coarse fragments

• Coarse Fragments: Rock or mineral particles >2.0 mm in diameter.
• Sand: A soil particle between 0.05 and 2.00 mm in diameter. Any one of five soil separates namely: very coarse sand; coarse sand; medium sand; fine sand; and very fine sand.
• Silt: A soil separate consisting of particles between 0.05 and 0.002 mm in equivalent diameter.
• Clay: A soil separate consisting of particles <0.002 mm in equivalent diameter.

pH: A measure of hydrogen ion activity or concentration. Expressed as pH units.

PAY-AS-CUT -Timber purchase based on a dollar amount for a certain amount/volume of wood, such as dollars per MBF.
Payment is made only as timber is cut and transported.

PEAVEY -Stout wooden lever, fitted with a strong, sharp spike used for rolling logs.

PEELER -High-grade log from which veneer is peeled, on a lathe, for the production of plywood. Peelers are most frequently
from old-growth trees. The resulting veneer is usually clear and used in sanded plywood.

PERENNIAL - Plants that live or grow for more than one year. Some resprout from a root system or reseed themselves every year.

PERENNIAL WILDLIFE MIXTURE - A mixture of all or some of the following: shrub lespedeza, partridge pea, cowpea, annual lespedeza, reseeding soybeans, and other perennial plants that are beneficial to wildlife.

PERIODIC ANNUAL INCREMENT -Mean annual growth or increase in volume during a specific period of time.

PEST - Any organism that is out of place or causes stress to a desired organism.

PESTICIDE - Any chemical used to kill or control pests.

PHOSPHATE - A chemical compound that aids root growth and is essential in energy transfer. It is commonly incorporated into beds as triple super phosphate (TSP) at time of planting.

PLANIMETER -Instrument used to mechanically measure an area by tracing the perimeter on a plane surface.
-Typically used to estimate the size of an area from scale maps.

PLANT or HABITAT DIVERSITY - A variety of food or cover for wildlife. Variation may occur at one point in time or over a period of time such as during the course of a season. Seasonal diversity of food and cover is often critical to the survival of a species.

PLANTATION - Planted pines or hardwoods, typically in an ordered configuration such as equally spaced rows.

POLES or POLETIMBER - Trees from 5 to 7 inches in diameter at breast height.

POLE -Young tree at least 4 inches and less than 8 to 12 inches in d.b.h..
-Any considerable length of round timber below saw log size, ready for use after removal of the bark without further
conversion. Suitable for power poles or for simple building work.
-Cedar or red fir log of saw log size, according to an individual pole manufacturer s specifications for length.

Pole size -Trees from 5 to 11 inches in d.b.h.

Poletimber -Arbitrary term for small sawtimber trees.
-Generally, trees 12 to 18 inches in d.b.h. Also known as small sawtimber.
POTENTIAL NATURAL COMMUNITY: The biotic community that would be established if all successional sequences of its ecosystem were completed without additional man-caused disturbance under present environmental conditions. Grazing by native fauna, natural disturbances, such as drought, floods, wildfire, insects and disease are inherent in the development of potential natural communities which may include naturalized non native species.

PREDATOR - An animal that preys on and devours other animals.

PREDATOR GUARD - A physical barrier used to keep one animal from eating another. Usually refers to protection devices on nest boxes.

PRECIPITATION, AVERAGE ANNUAL: The amount of rainfall (or equivalent snowfall) expected in the area over a calendar year.

PRECIPITATION, HOURLY: Hourly amount of liquid equivalent precipitation.

PRECOMMERCIAL THINNING -Cutting trees from a young stand so that the remaining trees will have more room to grow to
marketable size. Trees cut in a precommercial thinning have no commercial value and normally none of the felled trees are
removed for utilization. The primary intent is to improve growth potential for the trees left after thinning.

PREHAULING -Moving pulpwood from stump site to truck loading site by carrying it off the ground. Also known as forwarding.

PRESCRIBED or CONTROLLED BURN - The use of fire under specific environmental conditions to achieve forest management objectives. Used to reduce hazardous fuel levels, control unwanted vegetation, favor desired vegetation, and improve visibility and wildlife habitat.

PRESENT USE VALUATION - Property tax relief classification based on the land's productivity for agriculture, horticulture, or forestry production, rather than for market value. Can result in substantial tax savings in areas where land values are high. Some restrictions and penalties apply, including a 3-year roll back provision with interest. Consult your county tax supervisor for details.

PRESERVATION - An attempt to keep forests in an undisturbed state through the control of internal and external influences.

PRINCIPAL DEFECT: The most significant defect that reduces TREE VOLUME and TREE CLASS.

PRIVATE FOREST LAND OWNER: A classification of the owner responsible for the management of privately owned forested land.

• Forest Industry: Lands owned privately by companies or individuals operation wood-using plants.
• Farmer/Rancher: Lands owned by a person who operates a farm, either participating in the work or directly supervising the work.
• Farmer/Rancher Owned: Leased: Lands owned by a person who operates a farm, but currently being leased to and operated by forest industry.
• Other Private - Corporate: Lands privately-owned by any corporation other than forest industry or farmer.
• Other Private - Individual: Land owned by an individual other than a farmer.
• Oth