A Year in an Urban Forest

The urban environment is expanding at a never before seen rate. Existing natural environments within urban centres, such as
forests or woodlots, are exposed to increasing anthropogenic pressures of degradation, fragmentation, biological invasion and
destruction. One key to our capacity to understanding these changes will be ongoing monitoring through time. If such
monitoring is democratized and publicly available then one may assume that a marginalized environment may become more
valued by the human population. On the University of Guelph campus in Ontario, Canada, the “Dairy Bush” is an 8.5 ha
woodlot that has been part of the city and the university campus since 1830. The sign outside the Bush reads, "The Dairy
Bush is a unique and delicate example of Great Lakes St. Lawrence forest in Southern Ontario, and serves as an outdoor
laboratory for University of Guelph students." Between August 2009 and September 2010 I visited the Dairy Bush weekly to
document a year in this urban woodlot using GigaPan panoramic images.