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Scenario: a complete and workable set of resource management zones, objectives and strategies for the planning area which represent one potential option for analysis purposes.

Scenic area: defined in the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act Operational Planning Regulation as any visually sensitive area or scenic landscape identified through a visual landscape inventory or planning process carried out or approved by the district manager.

Secondary range: range which receives light or incidental use by livestock when management is limited.

Seed tree silvicultural system: a silvicultural system in which selected trees or tree groups are left standing after the initial harvest to provide a seed source for natural regeneration. After natural regeneration is achieved, the seed trees may or may not be removed.

Selection silvicultural system: a silvicultural system that removes mature timber either as single scattered individuals or in small groups at relatively short intervals, repeated indefinitely, where the continual establishment of regeneration is encouraged and an uneven-aged stand is maintained.

Sensitive areas: small areas established under the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act by the district manager to manage or conserve unique or locally significant resource values.

Sensitive/vulnerable species: (see blue-listed species)

Sensitivity analysis: systematic evaluation of the effects of uncertainty or changes in underlying assumptions on overall analysis results.

Seral stages: the stages of ecological succession of a plant community. e.g., from young stage to old stage. The characteristic sequence of biotic communities that successively occupy and replace each other by which some components of the physical environment become altered over time.

Shelterwood silvicultural system: a silvicultural system in which mature trees are removed in a series of cuts to achieve a new even-aged stand under the shelter of remaining trees.

Silvicultural system: a planned program of treatments throughout the life of the stand to achieve stand structural objectives based on integrated resource management goals. A silvicultural system includes harvesting, regeneration and stand-tending methods or phases. It covers all forest management activities for the entire length of a rotation or cutting cycle.

The forest practices code Silvicultural Systems Guidebook identifies six major categories of silvicultural system: five even-aged systems and one uneven-aged system. Even-aged categories include the clearcut, patch-cut, coppice, seed tree and shelterwood systems. Uneven-aged systems are termed selection silvicultural systems.

Silvicultural system variant: describes the functional attributes of a silvicultural system in further detail. A variant describes the general distribution of cut-and-leave areas or leave-trees on an area over time. The silvicultural system variant is the recommended minimum level of description of a silvicultural system for a silvicultural prescription or stand management prescription.

Silviculture: silviculture is the art and science of managing the establishment, growth, composition, health and quality of forests and woodlands. Silviculture entails the manipulation of forest and woodland vegetation in stands and on landscapes to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society on a sustainable basis.

Silviculture prescription: a site-specific operational plan that describes the forest management objectives for an area. It prescribes the method for harvesting the existing forest stand, and a series of silviculture treatments that will be carried out to establish a free growing stand in a manner that accommodates other resource values as identified (see also pre-harvest silviculture prescription(PHSP)).

Single tree selection system: a variant of the selection silvicultural system. It is defined as an uneven-aged silvicultural system in which new age classes are created by the removal of individual trees of all size classes, more or less uniformly throughout the stand.

Social, environmental and economic (SEE) impact assessment: (see socio-economic analysis and multiple accounts analysis (MAA))

Social impact analysis: an analytical technique that identifies and assesses demographic, local government and community concerns.

Socio-economic analysis (SEA): an assessment of the impacts of a course of action on the social and economic well-being of a community, region, or the province as a whole. In land and resource management planning (LRMP), when socio-economic analysis is expanded to include environmental impacts it is generally referred to as social, environmental and economic (SEE) impact assessment (see also multiple accounts analysis (MAA)).

Species account: a summary outlining the ecology, distribution and recommended management strategy for a species of identified wildlife (not related to multiple accounts analysis).

Species at risk: for the purposes of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act it means

Stand: (see forest stand)

Stand-initiating events: occur when natural disturbances such as wildfire, wind, landslides and avalanches significantly alter an ecosystem. In most cases there is considerable mortality of plant species, some degree of site disturbance and the initiation of successional processes that will form a new plant community with a different structure and likely a different composition than its predecessor.

Stand-maintaining events: the fairly frequent occurrence of wildfires, either as surface or as surface and crown fires, which serve to maintain an ecosystem at a particular successional stage. This may result in a "fire climax" such as is found in the Ponderosa pine or interior Douglas-fir types, or in a coastal forest of mid-seral tree species in relatively even-aged stands.

Stand management prescription: a site-specific operational plan describing the nature and extent of silviculture activities planned for a free growing stand of trees to facilitate the achievement of specified or identified social, economic and environmental objectives.

Strategic land use planning: planning at the regional, sub-regional and, in some cases, at the local level which results in land use allocation and/or resource management direction. Strategic land use planning at the regional and sub-regional level involves the preparation of resource management zones, objectives and strategies.

Strategies: specific management instructions to achieve an objective.

Structural attributes: components of a forest stand including living and dead standing trees, canopy architecture, and fallen dead trees which together determine stand structure.

Structural features: any buildings or structures that are made by humans. These resources are predominantly associated with activities, endeavours, or events, and retain meaning to a living community or cultural group. These resources are generally documented and interpreted using archival and oral historical sources. The majority of resources in this class will date from the historic period in provincial history. Examples include bridges and courthouse buildings (see cultural heritage resource).

Succession: the sequence of communities that progressively occupy an area over time; or the process by which communities replace each other.

Sustainability: a state or process that can be maintained indefinitely. The principles of sustainability integrate three closely interlinked elements - the environment, the economy and the social system - into a system that can be maintained in a healthy state indefinitely.

Sustained yield: a method of forest management that calls for an approximate balance between net growth and the amount harvested.