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Capability (land): the potential of an area of land to produce resources, supply goods and services, and allow resource uses under an assumed set of management practices and at given levels of management intensity. Capability depends upon this set of conditions and site conditions such as climate, slope, landform, soils, and geology.

Carrying capacity: the average population that can be sustained on a management unit, compatible with management objectives for the unit. It is a function of site characteristics, management goals and management intensity.

Clearcutting with reserves: a variation of the clearcutting silvicultural system which retains a variable number of reserve trees either uniformly or in small groups, for purposes other than regeneration.

Clearcutting silvicultural system: a silvicultural system that removes an entire stand of trees from an area of one hectare or more, and greater than two tree heights in width, in a single harvesting operation. A new even-aged stand is obtained by planting, natural or advanced regeneration or direct seeding. The opening size and dimensions created are generally large enough to limit significant microclimatic influence from the surrounding stand.

Coarse filter approach: an approach to maintaining biodiversity under the forest practices code that involves maintaining a diversity of structures within stands and a diversity of ecosystems across the landscape. The intent is to meet most of the habitat requirements of most of the native species (see also fine filter approach).

Coarse woody debris: sound and rotting logs and stumps that have the potential to provide habitat for fungi, plants, animals and insects and their predators, and that provide a source of nutrients for soil development. Material generally greater than eight to ten centimetres in diameter.

Coast: that geographic area west of the Cascade Mountains, as officially delineated by the Cascade Mountains Administrative Line through British Columbia from Washington state to Alaska, including the lower Fraser River area south of Hell's Gate (south of Boston Bar), taking in the Coquihalla, Silverhope, and Skagit River drainages lying east of the line, but excluding the portions of the Kalum Forest District and Cariboo Forest Region lying west of the line.

Commission on Resources and Environment (CORE): a body established by the British Columbia government, independent of the various provincial ministries, whose legal mandate as defined in the Commissioner on Resources and Environment Act was to "develop for public and government consideration a British Columbia-wide strategy for land use and related resource and environmental management."

Community watershed: defined in the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act section 41(8)(a) as

if the drainage area is not more than 500 square kilometres and the water licence was issued before June 15, 1995 or

b) an area that is designated as a community watershed under subsection (10).

Sub-section (10) states that the regional manager may designate an area as a community watershed if

(a) in the opinion of the regional manager and a designated environment official it should be designated as a community watershed,

(b) the area is all or part of the drainage area above the most downstream point of diversion for a water use that is for human consumption and that is licensed under the Water Act for a domestic purpose or a waterworks purpose, and

(c) the area is not an area referred to in subsection (8)(a).

Compatibility matrix: a table showing the compatibility of a range of resource use mixes.

Connectivity: a qualitative term describing the degree to which late-successional ecosystems are linked to one another to form an interconnected network. The degree of interconnectedness and the characteristics of the linkages vary in natural landscapes based on topography and natural disturbance regime. Breaking of these linkages may result in fragmentation.

Consensus: a "general agreement" as defined and accepted by all those concerned. It assumes that participating parties accept the overall package of decisions reached, even if there is not complete concurrence on each aspect.

Coordinated access management plan (CAMP): (see access management plan)

Coppice silvicultural system: an even-aged silvicultural system for which the main regeneration method is vegetative sprouting of either suckers (from existing root systems of cut trees) or shoots (from cut stumps). This system is limited to deciduous/broad-leaved species management.

Cover type (see forest cover type)

Critical habitat: areas considered to be critically important for sustaining a population and where development may cause an unacceptable decline in the population. A rating of the importance of the habitat (e.g., high, medium, low) may also be used.

Crown land: land that is owned by the Crown; referred to as federal Crown land when it is owned by Canada, and as provincial Crown land when it is owned by a province. Land refers to the land itself and the resources or values on or under it, as well as the beds of waterbodies (i.e. lakes) and rivers>.

Cultural heritage resource: for the purposes of the Forest Act, a cultural heritage resource is an object, a site or the location of a traditional societal practice that is of historical, cultural or archaeological significance to the Province, a community or an aboriginal people.

Cultural heritage resources include archaeological sites, structural features, heritage landscape features and traditional use sites.

Cumulative effects: effects on biota of stress imposed by more than one mechanism (e.g. stress in fish imposed by both elevated suspended sediment concentrations in the water and by high water temperature) (see also additive effects).

Cut control: a set of rules and actions specified in the Forest Act that describes the allowable variation in the annual harvest rate either above or below the allowable annual cut determined by the chief forester.

Cutblock: defined in the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act as a specific area of land identified on a forest development plan, or in a licence to cut, road permit, or Christmas tree permit, within which timber is to be or has been harvested.

Cutblock adjacency: the desired spatial relationship among cutblocks as specified in integrated resource management guidelines. They can be approximated by specifying the maximum allowable proportion of a forested landscape that does not meet green-up requirements.

Cutting permit: a legal document that authorizes the holder to harvest trees under a licence issued under the Forest Act.

Cutting plan: (see logging plan)