silvics

noun

1. (uncountable)The study of the characteristics of trees, including especially their role in the ecology of their forest habitats; such information collected about individual trees and tree species.

   “Silviculture may be defined* as the art of producing and tending a forest; the application of the knowledge of silvics in the treatment of a forest. Silvics deals with the fundamental laws underlying the growth and development of single trees and of the forest as a biological unit.”

   “1990, Jerry A. Sesco, Foreword, Russell M. Burns, Barbara H. Honkala, Silvics of North America, Volume 1: Conifers, Agriculture Handbook 654, US Department of Agriculture, page iii, "Silvics of Forest Trees of the United States," Agriculture Handbook 271, was the first comprehensive document of its kind in the United States. […] The original "silvics manual" took 10 years to complete and was published in 1965.”

   “1995, Christopher Herbert Richard Wedeles, Alternative Silvicultural Systems for Ontario's Boreal Mixedwoods, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, page 9, Silvics deals with the underlying principles of the growth and development of individual trees and the forest as biological units (Smith 1986).”