Oxford forests are being depleted at a rate faster than they are being replaced. (HEATHER RIVERS/SENTINEL-REVIEW)

Oxford County is losing its forests at a rate faster than they are being replanted and replaced.

According to an Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) report that will go before Oxford County Council on Wednesday, Oxford lost 218 hectares of forest between 2000 and 2010 or 1.6 per cent.

Entitled Forest Loss in the Upper Thames Watershed, the report is designed to provide a snapshot as to what has happened on the authority’s landscape since 2000.

Authored by terrestrial biologist Cathy Quinlan and geographic information systems specialist Terry Chapman, the results are drawn from maps of forest-and-vegetation cover the UTRCA has been mapping for years.

Quinlan said Monday that results of study last fall was “an eye opener” for the UTRCA and those they shared their information with.

By Heather Rivers, Woodstock Sentinel-Review
Read more here: www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2018/02/12/for-the-first-time-the-utrca-has-confirmed-reforestation-efforts-are-not-keeping-up-with-the-loss-of-oxford-forests-and-those-across-the-conservation-authority