The Rural Ontario Landscape
A Study of its Evolution and Management
by Michael Moss

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The broad, global perspectives of environmental management, sustainability, and stewardship provide the context for this book. Within this broad framework, a location in the Township of Centre Wellington, southern Ontario, serves as a case study to illustrate the evolution of its landscape, as well as the significance of landscape to various aspects of land planning and management. It is at this local government level that policy initiatives from regional and governmental bodies are actually implemented. The term ‘landscape’ is used to reflect the interrelationships between the physical, natural, and human characteristics of a location; this interaction produces the evolving land features and properties of an area. Increasingly, this recognition forms the basis of many local land management procedures and strategies. The book derives information and data from a wide range of sources. Throughout, each source is examined for its local availability, relevance, and veracity, with critical gaps and omissions noted. Through the various stages of the landscape’s development, the related management initiatives are discussed, as they are reflected in the changing features of the local environment. The book demonstrates the application of landscape ecology principles and provides a case to illustrate emerging ideas in integrated landscape management.

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Michael Moss is a geography graduate from the universities of Leeds (BSc.) and Sheffield (PhD.). In Canada, at the University of Guelph, he was Professor and Chair of the Geography Department and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences. After retiring from the academic field he was associated with ECO Canada, the federal agency concerned with employment in the environmental sector. There he worked on the development of career-related environmental programs and program accreditation standards across the college and university fields. Internationally, he has worked on land resource-related projects in Indonesia and Mexico and in the position of Vice-Chair of the Landscape Synthesis Working Group of the International Geographical Union and the world Conservation Learning Network of IUCN. His involvement in the landscape ecology field began as one of the founders of the Canadian Society for Landscape Ecology and Management and later as Secretary-General of the International Association for landscape Ecology.

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Contributors

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Michael Moss