Glossary
A
- arson
- - The crime of deliberately setting a fire with the intent to cause damage
- atmosphere
- - The air and other gases surrounding the earth
B
- backfire
- - Controlled burn set by firefighters to consume fuel in the path of a wildfire
C
- channels
- - The bed of a stream or river
- chemical reaction
- - An event which causes a substance to change into a new substance
- converted
- - Changed
D
- debris
- - Garbage
- deposits
- - Materials left - almost as if cast off
- dike
- - A wall used for controlling water
E
- ecosystems
- - The interaction between living and nonliving organisms in a community
- elements
- - Parts
- embers
- - Hot remains of a fire
- endangered
- - Threatened or in danger of becoming extinct or non-existent
F
- fire retardant
- - A chemical that suppresses fire
- firebreak
- - A strip of ground in the path of the fire, cleared of all vegetation to deprive the fire of fuel
- flammable
- - Quick to catch on fire
G
- gullies
- - Ditches caused by moving water
H
- habitat
- - Place where something lives
- horizontally
- - Level with the ground
- hotshots
- - Crews of highly trained wildland firefighters who work on dangerous, difficult fires
- humidity
- - Moisture in the atmosphere
I
- ignited
- - To set on fire
M
- management objective
- - Long range plan
P
- Paleozoic Era
- - Between 251 million to 542 million years ago
- petrified
- - Changed to stone
- phenomena
- - Events
- prescribed
- - Planned
R
- rangelands
- - grassland
- rehabilitating
- - To repair or return to original
S
- Smokejumpers
- - Firefighters who parachute out of planes into remote fire areas
- stabilize
- - To make firm or steady
- steppe
- - Prairie or grassland
- suppress
- - To stop or slow down
- sustain
- - Support
T
- tilled
- - Plowed
- topography
- - Features of the land, hills, mountains, valleys - highs and lows
- trench
- - Ditch
V
- velocity
- - Speed or change in direction