Active Transportation: cycling or walking (as opposed to driving or taking a bus, street car, or subway).

Adaptive management: Altering management techniques according to new scientific knowledge.

Aggregate Mining: the mining of gravel, crushed rock (and other materials used to make concrete and asphalt) from open pits.

Biodiversity: Number and variety of living organisms; includes all plants and animals.

Boreal Forest: The largest intact forest on the planet, which covers the northern latitudes of Canada, Alaska, and Russia.

Carbon Sink: A part of the earth that removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it produces.

Clear-cut: The process by which forest companies remove every marketable tree from a piece of land, which leaves a barren landscape.

Crown Land: Land owned by the citizens of Ontario and managed in trust by the provincial government. More than 80% of Ontario is crown land.

Ecological Carrying capacity: The maximum amount of pressure that an ecosystem can tolerate without deteriorating.

Extirpation: When a species becomes locally extinct or extinct from a portion of its natural range.

Indicator Species: A species whose health reflects the health of the surrounding environment, including the plants and animals that live there.

Intensification: placing new development within existing urban boundaries and built up areas, with the purpose of increasing density and preserving greenspace.

Mixed-use Zoning: a planning term describing the combination of different land uses into one area (combining the places people live, work, shop, recreate, etc.).

Moraine: A glacial landform consisting of material deposited from a glacier, forming a natural ridge rich in sand and gravel.

Natural Heritage System: A connected group of natural areas, and the native plants, animals and geological features that contribute to that natural environment.

Natural Core Areas (Oak Ridges Moraine): Lands with the greatest concentrations of key natural heritage features that are critical to maintaining the integrity of the Moraine as a whole.

Natural Linkage Areas (Oak Ridges Moraine): Natural and open space linkages between the Natural Core Areas and along rivers and streams.

Old-Growth Forest: A Forest that has not experienced industrial logging, and has ttrees that are 80 years and older. A complex ecosystem, which contains a high level of plant and animal diversity.

Single-use zoning: a planning term describing the separation of different land uses (e.g. separating residential areas, commercial areas, recreational areas, etc.)

Silviculture: The science of tending managed forests to maintain maximum productivity.

Sprawl: poorly planned, auto-centric urban and suburban development characterized by low-density, single-use zoning, and poor or non-existent public transportation systems.

Ungulate Prey: Hoofed mammals, such as moose and deer.

Watershed: The land area that supplies water to streams, rivers, or other bodies of water.

Wetland: An area that has waterlogged soils or is covered with a relatively shallow layer of water, for at least part of the year. Bogs, marshes and swamps are examples of wetlands.

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