A Year in an Urban Forest

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