O

Objective: an aim, goal or end to action. Objectives and associated strategies contained in plans provide direction on land use and resource management for the plan area.

Official (or designated official): a person from the Ministry of Forests, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, or Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources designated by the respective minister to carry out provisions of the Forest Practices Code. Designated compliance and enforcement responsibilities of officials include inspection, investigation, seizure and the issuance of stop work orders (see designated energy, mines and petroleum resources official, designated environment official, and designated forest official).

Offsetting impacts: impacts that effectively cancel one another.

Old growth: forest that contains live and dead trees of various sizes, species, composition and age classes. Old growth forests, as part of a slowly changing but dynamic ecosystem, include climax forests but not sub-climax or mid-seral forests. The age and structure of old growth varies significantly by forest type and from one biogeoclimatic zone to another.

Old growth attributes: structural attributes and other characteristics of old growth forests, which may include: large trees for the species and site; wide variation in tree sizes and spacing; accumulations of large dead standing and fallen trees; multiple canopy layers; canopy gaps and understory patchiness; elements of decay such as broken or deformed tops or trunks and root decay; and the presence of species characteristic of old growth.

Old growth management area (OGMA): defined in the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act Operational Planning Regulation as an area established under a higher level plan which contains or is managed to replace structural old growth attributes.

Old Growth Strategy: this strategy represented the views of citizen and environmental groups, forest industry associations, organized labour, researchers, provincial and federal resource agency staff, and individual professionals. This consensus-based strategy provided a recommended framework for managing old growth forests in B.C.

Operational plan: the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act states that within the context of area-specific management guidelines, operational plans detail the logistics for development. Methods, schedules, and responsibilities for accessing, harvesting, renewing, and protecting the resource are set out to enable site-specific operations to proceed. Operational plans include forest development plans, logging plans, access management plans, range use plans, silviculture prescriptions, stand management prescriptions and five year silviculture plans.

Option value: the value derived from having the option for humans to make use of a resource in the future (see also existence value, use value).