197 

 Forests of Northern Illinois 



EXTENT of the INVESTIGATION 



The original forests of northern Illinois region were in two irregu- 

 lar belts, one extending up the Illinois River and the other up the 

 Mississippi. All of Calhoun and Pike counties were forested, with the 

 exception of small areas of "prairie bottom" on the Mississippi. Most 

 of Jo Daviess County was also wooded, as well as large parts of 

 Carroll, Rock Island, Mercer, Adams, Brown, Schuyler, and Fulton 

 counties. Since the forest land is now confined tO' overflow lands and 

 broken country along the rivers, it was not advisable to study many 

 of the northern counties in their entirety. After complete surveys of 

 Calhoun and Pike counties, the Mississippi bluff- and bottom-lands 

 were followed northward, without covering an entire county, until the 

 northernmost — Jo Daviess — was reached. Since the woodland else- 

 where in the region is very scattered, it was not studied. 



BOTTOMLAND TYPE 



The principal bottomlands included in this study extend up the 

 Illinois River to Beardstown, and up the Mississippi from the mouth 

 of the Illinois to the north boundary of the state. The usual clay 

 soil gives way in places to large flat plains or slightly elevated bars of 

 pure sand. Where unprotected by levees, portions of the flood-plain 

 are under water for a large part of the year, and in addition there are 

 long sloughs and lakes that are never dry. It is a matter of common 

 knowledge that the floods on the Illinois have been increased through 

 the elevation of the stream level by the additional water from the 

 Chicago drainage canal. 



The progress of levee-building and drainage has been such that 

 very little forest land is left. This is largely confined to strips of sandy 

 or very wet soil and to land outside of levees or where such protections 

 have not yet been constructed. The principal species are pin oak, 

 white elm, maple, cottonwood, birch, ash, sycamore, and willow. Bur 

 oak, buckeye, boxelder, hackberry, and honey locust grow scatteringly. 

 The greater part of the forest has been very heavily culled, and in 

 places the lumbering has been practically a clear cutting; reproduction 

 is sometimes very scanty. Those areas of woodland which were 

 lumbered more than a decade ago were for the most part not cut so 

 closely, and have grown up to a dense small growth. Elm, soft maple, 

 ash, pecan, cottonwood, and pin oak comprise most of the stands on 

 the Illinois bottoms. The pin oak is especially noticeable here on 

 account of its tendency to form a dense, even-aged seedling stand 



