MEASUREMENT OF SPATIAL CHANGE IN THE FOREST COMPONENT OF THE RURAL LANDSCAPE OF SOUTHERN ONTARIO

Forests are one of the more rapidly changing elements within the rural landscape of southern Ontario. The pattern of change and evolution of forest cover has implications for both biotic and abiotic processes .Spatial change in forest elements provides an important perspective needed to integrate forest information with environmental management, particularly through agro-ecosystem and natural resources planning. Shape, size and spatial pattern are indices of change identified at scales from individual woodlots to their cumulative expression at the regional scale. Changes are illustrated by reference to forest change in three townships representing the three dominant ecoregions of southern Ontario.