About the Elgin-Middlesex Chapter

Elgin and Middlesex Counties boast some of the finest agricultural land in Ontario and farms can be 5,000 acres or larger. Due to the very high prices that good agricultural land can bring, the overall forest cover in the area is well below the 30% that considered ecologically necessary. In Elgin County, forest covers only 13% of the landscape. The EMOWA Chapter stretches from the north shore of Lake Erie with its numerous ravines, through roiling glacial moraines and into the broad Thames River valley and then into the glacial moraines near Lake Huron. The area is dominated by the Thames River with the Cattish and Kettle Creeks in the south and the Ausable and St. Clair rivers in the western portion.

Originally, there were two woodlot associations, one in Elgin and the other in Middlesex, both founded in 1995. In 2002, the Elgin County Woodlot Owners and the Middlesex Woodlot Owners amalgamated to form the Elgin-Middlesex Woodlot Owners Association and this new association joined the OWA in 2006.