The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) "Agent" means the recognized legal representative, representatives, agent, or agents for any owner.

(2) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of public lands.

(3) "Department" means the department of natural resources.

(4) "Disturbance agent" means those forces that damage or kill significant numbers of forest trees, such as insects, diseases, windstorms, ice storms, and fires.

(5) "Exotic" means not native to forestlands in Washington state.

(6) "Forest health" means, for the purposes of this chapter, the condition of a forest being sound in ecological function, sustainable, resilient, and resistant to insects, diseases, fire, and other disturbance, and having the capacity to meet landowner objectives.

(7) "Forest health emergency" means the introduction of, or an outbreak of, an exotic forest insect or disease that poses an imminent danger of damage to the environment by threatening the survivability of native tree species.

(8) "Forest insect or disease" means a living stage of an insect, other invertebrate animal, or disease-causing organism or agent that can directly or indirectly injure or cause disease or damage in trees, or parts of trees, or in processed or manufactured wood, or other products of trees.

(9) "Forestland" means any land on which there are sufficient numbers and distribution of trees and associated species to, in the judgment of the department, contribute to the spread of forest insect or forest disease outbreaks that could be detrimental to forest health.

(10) "Integrated pest management" means a strategy that uses various combinations of pest control methods, including biological, cultural, and chemical methods, in a compatible manner to achieve satisfactory control and ensure favorable economic and environmental consequences.

(11) "Native" means having populated Washington's forested lands prior to European settlement.

(12) "Outbreak" means a rapidly expanding population of insects or diseases with potential to spread.

(13) "Owner" means and includes persons or their agents.

(14) "Person" means any individual, partnership, private, public, or municipal corporation, county, federal, state, or local governmental agency, tribes, or association of individuals of whatever nature.

(15) "Timberland" means any land on which there is a sufficient number of trees, standing or down, to constitute, in the judgment of the department, a forest insect or forest disease breeding ground of a nature to constitute a menace, injurious and dangerous to permanent forest growth in the district under consideration.

(16) "Uncharacteristic" means ecologically atypical for a forest or vegetation type or plant association and refers to fire, insect, or disease events that are not within a natural range of variability.

Findings—2003 c 314: See note following RCW 17.24.220.