Edge width is a concept that attempts to capture the influence of the non-forest feature as it extends into the forest. As you can imagine, this can be fairly complex. A clearing made in the forest for a pasture would have a much different impact on the edge forest than a clearing for a four-lane highway. Research (see references below) has found that the “edge influence” of a clearing will typically extend about 100m (300ft) into the forest. This may increase up to 200m (600ft) for a two lane secondary road, and up to 300m (900ft) for a major highway. Since the Connecticut landscape is composed of numerous types of fragmenting land cover features, we chose to use the more conservative edge width of 100m (300ft).