Forest patch histories in the Chicago Region

This layer used forest patch layers from three time periods: 2010 (Darling et al. 2023), 1939 (Fahey and Casali 2017), and 1830 (McBride and Halsey 2015) to quantify the disturbance history of forest patches. We classified patch history by assessing the overlap of current patches with the 1939 and 1830 layers. History types were defined as: remnant (forested in all three time periods), regrowth (forested in 2010 and 1830 but not 1939) and novel (currently forested but not forested in the pre-colonial era). It also differentiates between forest cores and edges, with edges being forested area that is within 15 m of the patch edge. This layer was created as part of the paper "Ecological and developmental history impacts the equitable distribution of services".