A State Forestry Division was not just “pulled out of the legislative hat” in Iowa. One of the richest farming areas on earth, Iowa, like most prairie states, has most of its timber lands adjoining the rivers and streams.  Early maps (1832 to 1850) show about 6.5 million acres covered with timber, of the total of 35.5 million acres of the state.  Best estimates now indicate that about 2.5 million acres still are classified as timber land.

The original forest produced many important commercial species of timber which are common in the central hardwood region.  Among the more important; walnut, the oaks, basswood, the elms, hickories, cottonwood, several ashes, hard and soft maples and many varieties of less importance.

The farmer, not the logger, cleared Iowa of her forests.  While inevitable and beneficial in many areas, in some it has led to poor farming and bad erosion.  Until recently local timber was the main fuel for farm homes.  In the early days steam boats on the Mississippi depended heavily upon river bank timber for fuel.  Cutting the best trees for lumber, posts and poles, and even for cord wood, greatly reduced the quality of Iowa timber over a long period of culling-a major problem for today’s farm foresters.

Not until recent years has the wood lot owner been concerned in stopping surface fires.  Fires were often encouraged in order to “benefit the grazing of livestock.”  As late as the nineteen thirties the burning over of bluff lands along the Mississippi was a spring ritual.  The rapid depletion of the woodlands and the resulting deterioration of soil and water drove Iowans in the last century to action.

For over a century Iowa citizens, societies and associations made efforts to promote forestry and tree planting.  The Iowa State Agricultural Society in its report in 1857 lamented the fact that “so little attention has been bestowed upon the cultivation of timber.... the Board of Directors will not fail to urge its necessity.”  For a period of twenty years or more the Agricultural Society endeavored to promote forestry, especially by planting trees adapted to Iowa conditions.

At the time the Iowa Horticultural Society was organized in 1866, forestry and timber-tree planting were considered among the most important elements in the Society’s program.  For 90 years this organization has played a large part informing the Iowa public on forestry and tree planting as well as on subjects of a more strictly horticultural nature.

The annual reports of the Society up to 1900 contain over 300 reports and editorials which helped to keep the public informed on forestry and allied subjects.  The early efforts of the Society were especially interesting.  In 1873 the Iowa Horticultural Society took action “declaring the 20th day of April 1974 and the same day of each succeeding year, to be Arbor Day for the State . . . to be devoted to the planting of trees . . . designed to form permanent groves”.  In later years, Arbor Days have been proclaimed annually by the Governor.

For a period of twenty-one years (1874-1895) the Horticultural Society, through the Forestry Committee, published a 32 page manual or annual which was widely distributed over the state.  An edition of 10,000 copies was printed in 1880.  The publication provided detailed instructions on trees suitable for planting as well as proper methods of culture.  During this same period the Society offered annual premiums of $10.00 to $40.00 for the most successful plantations of trees.  Although the prizes, usually about 20 annually, were relatively small the efforts helped to pinpoint the need for timber planting.  The standing committee on Forestry (made up of Prof. J. L. Budd of the Agricultural College, H. S. Raymond and John Scott) kept the Society informed on the forestry needs of the State.  As early as 1871 white pine was recognized as a valuable species for planting.  The Committee suggested “the starting of 1,000,000 acres of white pine under the supervision of commissioners appointed by the State.”

On April 6, 1872, the legislature approved a bill providing $1,000 for the support of the Horticultural Society and provided that $00 of the amount be paid in premiums for growing forest trees.

The legislature approved an act on April 6, 1868 ”to encourage the growing of timber . . . for every acre planted and cared for, $100 to be exempt from taxes for ten years,” an action later repealed.

As early as 1873 the Horticultural Society recommended establishment of a Board of Forestry Commissioners whose duties would involve the appointment of a competent State Forester at a salary of $100 per month.  The prescribed duties of the proposed State Forester were largely to be centered on timber planting an management of a state nursery.  It took 50 years for these efforts to yield fruit.

Some of the earlier residents of Iowa believed the treeless prairies were responsible for much of the suffering during severe winters.  One strong advocate for shelter plantings expressed his views at the Horticultural Society meeting in 1872-”treeless prairies are not fit for human habitation-suitable only for the Eskimo. . . more people were frozen to death this year in northwest Iowa and western Minnesota than have been murdered by the Indians since settlement.”

In 1876, Prof. H. H. McAfee of the Iowa Agricultural University at Ames, was the first Secretary of the American Forestry Association.  He appealed to the people of the prairie states, to become members by sending the annual membership fee of one-dollar to the Treasurer, Franklin Hough at Lowville, New York.

The lumber industry in Iowa dates back about 130 years to the establishment of the first sawmill in 1831 located on the Yellow River in the northeastern part of the state.  Soldiers form Fort Crawford under the direction of Lieutenant Jefferson Davis (later to become President of the Confederacy) constructed a dam.  The lumber was sawed by power developed from a water wheel.  For many years water power implemented the numerous sawmills which multiplied rapidly, especially along the Mississippi and its main tributaries.

In a comprehensive study of the sawmill industry in Iowa, Professor George H. Harman has pointed out that many of the Iowa river towns contributed materially in the manufacture of lumber during the peak of lumber production in Iowa.

With the passing of the “rafting” period the Iowa sawmill industry came to depend more upon local timber .  Production of the river towns had decreased rapidly by 1910 and the needs of the State were more and more supplied from small local hardwoods mills and by rail shipment from the large softwood lumber producing centers in the Lake States, the South and West
 
In the early days the pioneers made use of hardwood lumber sawed by small mills in their vicinity.  As early as 1860 the U. S. Census Bureau recorded sawmills operating in about 70 per cent of the Iowa counties-with the heavier concentration along the larger rivers.  Since this period the small portable mill has served to supply limited amounts of native lumber.  Today something over a thousand small mills operate on a-year-around, or part time schedule.  However, the production of these mills, important to their respective communities, furnish  only a small part of the total lumber consumption of the state. According to Hartman, the lumber production of 15 Mississippi River towns from Lansing on the North to Keokuk on the South during the middle seventies amounted to almost 300,000,000 board feet annually.

In 1915 the Iowa Legislature directed the State Highway Commission to undertake a survey of the meandered lakes and lake beds of the state.  The resulting report to the Governor was prepared by the head of the forestry work at Iowa State University, who also was serving as Deputy Forestry Commissioner under the State Secretary of Agriculture.  The report was submitted in December 1916.  The forestry part outlined the feasibility of using the waste and semi-waste areas adjoining the lakes (and some of the beds of drained lakes) for reforestation-with the several objectives of soil protection, game cover, recreation and timber production.  Detailed plans and maps were prepared for two sample lakes.  The survey was instrumental in stopping the lake drainage program which had been advocated by some over-enthusiastic agriculturists.  Instead, the report had its effect in crystallizing sentiment for developing the lakes for recreation, wildlife, park and forestry uses.

Conservation minded members of the State Horticultural Society took the lead in attempting to advance the forestry interests in the state.  This was particularly true during the period from 1866 to about 1900.  Other agencies had a definite influence on conservation especially after 1900.  Among these agencies were the Iowa Academy of Science, the Iowa Agricultural College (later the Iowa State University), the State University of Iowa and the Iowa Park and Forestry Association.

The Iowa Academy of Science was organized in 1887 and has been a continuous influence on, and registrar of the broad scientific field which relates to conservation.  In recent years the Academy has had a standing committee on conservation.

Forestry has been taught at the State University since 1872.  The school has a staff of 18 men and more than a thousand graduates.

The Iowa Park and Forestry Association was organized in November, 1901.  Among the charter members were Prof. J. L. Budd, Prof. A. T. Erwin, Prof. L. H. Pammel and Prof. H. C. Price all from Iowa State University; Prof. T. H. McBride and Prof. B. Shimek from the State University; Wesley Green of Davenport, Elmer Reeves of Waverly and Eugene Secor of Forest City.  It required a five-year effort on the part of the Association to get a Forest and Fruit Tree Reservation Act passed, but get it passed they did in 1906. In 1914 the name of the Association was changed to the Iowa Forestry and Conservation Association.

By the 1930s the pressure of other duties of the volunteer officers, the depression years, and the lack of tangible results led to a loss of interest in such statewide volunteer organizations.  The Association died.  The demise was a quiet and peaceful one.

By the 1950s some interested individuals and associations including the State Izaak Walton League and the Forestry Committee of the State Banker’s Association proposed a comprehensive review of the entire state forestry program with recommendations for placing forestry on a more substantial footing.  Legislation designed to secure more substantial support for forestry work was proposed.  The interest of this group was largely responsible for stopping a proposed move to abandon the state nursery south of Ames and discontinue the production of trees and shrubs for distribution under the Clarke-McNary Act.

Immediately following the passage of the Clarke-McNary Act, Iowa became a cooperator.  At the inception of the Clarke-McNary program Iowa State University was the cooperating agency acting through the Forestry Department and the Extension Division.  There was no such thing as a Conservation Commission.

Forest trees for distribution over the State were produced on nursery lands operated by the Forestry Department of the University.  From 1912 to 1925 limited supplies of forest trees were produced on the State College land and raised largely by the students enrolled in the forestry course, for experimental reforestation projects and for many windbreak and shelterbelt demonstrations over the state.

Between 1917 and 1922 thousands of these trees were furnished private landowners, the Indian Service, the State Parks and other agencies to establish sizable plantations on eroded and sandy lands.  Some of these forested areas have already produced returns from thinnings for pulpwood and other products.

The facilities for greatly increasing tree distribution came with the advent of the Civilian Conservation Corps program and the acquisition by the State of nursery and other lands to increase the effectiveness of the program.  Hundreds of acres of state lands were planted with trees and shrubs for timber production, erosion control, wildlife habitat and recreation.  The greatest output from the state nurseries came prior to the Second World War.  In 1938 these produced about four million trees.  Since 1945 the production of planting stock, although small by state nursery standards has increased from 121,000 to nearly 3 million.

The Iowa Legislature restricted the distribution of trees and shrubs to planting on state-owned lands and on private tracts for the purpose only of providing game cover or for preventing soil erosion.  In addition the law permitted furnishing trees at reduced cost for a demonstration windbreak in each township.  The action was designed to prevent the State from encroaching on private nursery business.

Early in the 1930s there was a wide spread realization among conservationists of a specific need for a general revamping of the entire conservation work in the state.  Among those who led in this move were Dr. Thomas H. MacBride and Dr. Bohemul Shimek of the State University of Iowa and Dr. Louis H. Pammel of the Iowa State University.  A proposal to prepare a long time conservation plan was spearheaded by J. N. Darling, cartoonist of the Des Moines Register and a member of the Fish and Game Commission.  As a result in March 1931, the Iowa General Assembly adopted a joint resolution instructing the Fish and Game Commission and the State Board of Conservation to collaborate in the preparation of a long term conservation plan.  Jacob L. Crane, Jr. of Chicago was employed as Consultant and Director.  Many  advisors and consultants assisted including architects, foresters, geologists, wildlife experts and engineers.

The 175 page plan was published in 1933.  It contained many maps and charts also pointed out that Iowa’s forests, woodlands, reforestation and soil erosion control had been badly neglected in the past.

The 25 year plan recommended the consolidation of the Iowa Board of Conservation and the Fish and Game Commission into a single body.  This proposed consolidation was effected by legislative action soon after the plan was published.  The resulting reorganization set up the present Iowa State Conservation Commission with a Director and three major divisions--(1) Administration (2) Fish and Game and (3) Lands and Waters.

The legislation at this time specified the “Said Director shall, with the consent of the Commission, employ assistants including a professionally trained state forester of recognized standing.  .  .  .”  The position of State Forester has been continued since that time.  The 25-year plan has been effective administratively, but it has underemphasized forestry in favor of parks.

Within the past few years several surveys of the Conservation Commission have been made and reports submitted.  These have resulted in few changes either in organizational setup or reapportionment of financial support between the divisions.

Just prior to the authorization of C.C.C. camps by President Franklin Roosevelt, Lieutenant Governor Nels G. Kraschel and State Forester G. B. MacDonald took a proposal for Iowa camps to Washington.  The program outlined in detail plans for 16 “Soil Erosion Camps.”

The plan for Iowa outlined for each of the 16 proposed camps the location, supervisory personnel, equipment, and the approximate cost for a six-months period of operation.  The C.C.C. Director, after a brief review of the Iowa proposal remarked “this is just what the President is looking for.”  Within the next few days a wire from the C.C.C. Director’s office authorized the establishment of the camps.

The original C.C.C. camps which at the start largely were used for soil erosion control, soon were authorized for many phases of work on private, state and national forests and parks.  In Iowa, of the 16 original camps, 12 were used for general soil erosion control and two for work in the Iowa state parks.  For the first several years the State Forester served as Director of the Iowa program.  The camps were usually made up of 200 enrollees each with necessary technical personnel.  From year to year the number of camps in Iowa varied from the original 16 to 45.

Since federal funds were restricted to certain uses, the State cooperated in financing the programs in order to secure conservation benefits of a more lasting nature.  The State Forester, who was acting as the State Director, appeared before both branches of the Iowa legislature in April 1935 making an appeal for supplementary state financing for the Civilian Conservation Corps program.  The General Assembly appropriated a total of one million dollars for the C.C.C. work.

The State C.C.C. funds made possible the acquisition of about 12,000 acres of state forests in southern and northeastern Iowa and the addition of a number of new state parks, as well as increasing the area of many existing parks.  Among the forest-park acquisitions was the purchase of the largest remaining native white pine stand in the state-some 600 acres which were added to the existing forest reserve in Delaware County.

Largely through state financing, a nursery of 100 acres in central Iowa was purchased and equipped.  A second tree nursery in southeastern Iowa was also developed on federal land.

During 1933 and 1934 the State undertook the extensive survey of the “forest and wastelands” of the state.  This was made possible during the depression period by funds allocated for emergency work under the direction of the State Forester of the Conservation Commission.  The program continued for a few months.  Several hundred men were employed under a number of area supervisors.  They mapped the townships of the state to show timbered areas, woodland pastures, brush lands, eroded areas, shelterbelts, swamps and lakes.  A large volume of data was collected showing tree species, soil conditions, and other matters which had a bearing on developing the forestry program.  About three-fourths of the state was covered in the survey.  Individual township maps were prepared with a color legend.  Data was recorded for each individual forty acres.  These served later to indicate on a large state map the change in area of native timber lands as compared with maps prepared from the original land survey made 80 to 100 years before.

State passage of the National Forest Enabling Act in December 1933 was an attempt to get farmers off the poorer lands of the state unsuited to agriculture.  It was the feeling of many conservationists that there was a place in the state for relatively small National Forest units which could serve as forest management demonstration areas.  The U.S. Forest Service set up offices in Des Moines and during the next several years some 40,000 acres of land, mostly in southern Iowa, were optioned.  The option prices ranged from about $4.00 to $15.00 per acre, with an average price of about $10.00

Four National Forest purchase units were set up in southern Iowa; the Keosauqua, with a gross purchasable area of 126,080 acres; the Chequest with 224,040 acres and the Grand River with and area of 307,360 acres.  The four approved purchase units totaled 829,000 acres which were considered potential national forest lands.

In 1934 the State Forester attended a meeting of the National Forest Reservation Commission in Washington when the Forest Service presented a recommendation for the purchase of the 40,000 acres optioned in Iowa.

The Iowa purchases were postponed presumably because forest lands in some other states were available for purchase at one-fifth the price of the optioned Iowa land.  From a strictly national standpoint the delayed action on the Iowa program was probably justified although the state lost an opportunity for needed forest demonstration areas.

Several years later the National Forest Reservation Commission authorized the purchase of about 5,000 acres and a forest nursery site in southeastern Iowa.  The limited funds at the disposal of that Commission at this time precluded more extensive purchases and made it difficult for the Forest Service to administer economically the limited areas of acquired lands.  About 12,000 acres in the former federal purchase units have since been acquired by the state for state forests.

The limited responsibility for administering what would be considered “State Forestry” in Iowa has shifted over the years.  The Iowa Horticultural Society was the more or less official agency delegated with forestry and tree planting duties from about 1870 to 1924.  The two secretaries who functioned for the Society as forestry commissioners over this period were Wesley Green and Robert S. Herrick.  The Head of the Forestry School at the State University served as Deputy Commissioner from 1912 to 1924.

In 1924 the “state forestry” responsibility was shifted to the office of the State Secretary of Agriculture.  The head of the forestry work at the college continued as Deputy Forestry Commissioner or Deputy State Forester.  In 1935 with the establishment of the present Iowa State Conservation Commission, the official forestry responsibilities were turned over to the Commission.

The State Forester’s recommendations or actions were subject to review of the Director of the Conservation Commission.

 The major forestry activities of the Commission are:

 -to administer the State Farm Forestry program under the Federal Cooperative Management Act.  This involves six field projects in the state with a technically trained farm forester in charge who assists woodlot owners in securing better management and returns from their forest lands.

 -to administer and manage the state forests and forest reserves.  These involve a total charge of 11,688 acres.  Management of these areas includes timber stand improvement, planting, fire protection and general development of roads, fences and equipment.  Recently, limited prison labor has been available for development work on the state forests in southern and northeastern Iowa.

 -to cooperate with the U.S. Forest Service under the Clarke-McNary Law.  So far as funds will permit, the Commission provides fire protection to both public and private lands.  The state in divided into three districts.  The official protection force is made up largely of conservation officers of the Lands and Waters Division and also the Farm Foresters.
 
 -to administer the State Forest Nursery.

- to cooperate with other agencies on forest research.

Survival of plantings in different parts of the state are a part of the Commission’s concern.  The control of tree diseases is another.  The Commission has cooperated to the fullest extent with the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, and more recently with the U.S. Forest Service in an attempt to protect limited stands of white pine and windbreaks.  The largest and most valuable stand of white pine in the state is in the White Pine Hollow Reserve.  Intensive control measures have been taken in this area.

Another concern is “Oak wilt”.  Investigative work has been underway for many years in cooperation with the botanical section of the Agricultural Experiment Station.  The disease has been isolated and many control measures have been attempted.  These include destroying diseased trees and use of chemicals to nullify the toxins produced by the fungus.  Since the oaks make up a large proportion of the timber of Iowa the Commission is greatly concerned with the effectiveness and economic feasibility of control measures.

The interest of conservationists in the early 1900’s in holding the poorer lands for timber crops was largely responsible for the passage of this tax exemption legislation.  The incentive of reduced taxes was expected to induce landowners to hold their poorer lands in timber not only as a supplemental source of farm income but also for erosion control, watershed protection and game cover.  The act has met with indifference in many of the better agricultural areas of the state but with enthusiasm in some of the more heavily timbered sections.  In the 1954 report, one county in the northeastern part shows 586 individual reservations involving a total area of 15k326 acres.  In 1907, the next year after the passage of the act 1535 reservations were on record totaling 12,140 acres.  By 1911 the number of reservations had decreased to 1072 but the acreage remained about the same as in 1907.  By 1922 the total area in the forest reserves has increased to 16,273.  With the rapidly increasing land values there was a greatly stimulated interest in the tax exemption act especially in the counties with an appreciable amount of forest land.  This came about in spite of an amendment which changed the tax value of the lands involved from one dollar to four dollars per acre.

Planted groves originally made up an appreciable part of the total acreage reported but during recent years new plantings have become a negligible factor in the returns.

On July 1, 1936, a federal research center was set up at Ames with the cooperation of the Iowa State College, the State Agricultural Experiment Station and The Iowa Conservation Commission.

From the start the Iowa Center, with the cooperation of the state agencies, formulated a comprehensive program designed to help meet many of the forestry problems especially those related to farm forestry.  This decentralized federal  program has supplemented the state agencies in rapidly solving a number of problems peculiar to Iowa and the Central States.  The annual budget for the center of about $30,00a0 has been instrumental in securing more technical assistance and a more intensive research program.  The center’s work largely dovetails with the projects of the other agencies involving management and reforestation problems, regeneration of hardwood stand; marketing; erosion and watershed control.

With all this, however, the major concern of the Center and of Iowa forestry has been and will continue to be on the farm.  Here is were Iowa’s major industry is located.  Here is where most of her people live.  Here is where her trees grow.

The following reference from Hartman, 1942 was probably used in writing part of the above history.

“From Hartman 1942. Reference not complete in “Draft: Archaeological Investigations at Red House Landing (13AM228), Allamakee County, Iowa”

Pioneer Period, approximately 1830-1860. This period is marked by the exploitation of local timber resources by local settlers. Small mills processed locally harvested wood with farmers often supplementing their income by selling the wood from newly opened fields to such mills.

Second Stage, approximately 1860- 1890. This period saw the florescence of the lumber industry in Iowa.  The amount of lumber processed in Iowa mills approximately tripled, in part due to the practice of rafting softwoods such as pine down the river from harvesting location in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Local hardwoods were still consumed, especially by burgeoning furniture and carpentry industries.

Third Stage, approximately 1890-1910. This period witnessed the decline in prosperity of the Iowa lumber industry as timber that had once been locally harvested and/or rafted to the Iowa mills became exhausted. During this period local small mills returned to favor with the majority of locally milled woods being used in carpentry and furniture operations. Industrial advances and the success of the rail industry, however, helped make these small mills export timber further afield and be more efficient that  preceding mills.”