192 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



for farm purposes, fortunately. The highway commission has been 

 making a survey of many of these lakes in the state during the past 

 biennial period and has made a report to the legislature and before the 

 people of the state. 



I believe we ought to consider well the feasibility and practicability 

 of utilizing all these places in the state, to the highest degree in the 

 way of natural parks and recreation grounds. Nature has been rather 

 liberal with the state in that way, yet we have not appreciated the value 

 of the preservation of these places as we should 



I am very much pleased, indeed, that this association is giving at-' 

 tention to this problem, issuing excellent reports as they have been 

 doing, putting these things before the people and the legislature in such 

 a way that they may make the most of the opportunities that we have 

 to preserve these beauty spots. Iowa Conservation, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 18. 



FOREST PARKS IN IOWA. 

 By G. B. McDonald, Botanist. 



Many of the early settlers in Iowa looked upon the forest as an un- 

 desirable encumbrance to the land and, as was their custom before com- 

 ing to this section, they started a program of forest destruction. Even 

 with a relatively small timber area in Iowa, the pioneer cut the forest 

 trees not only on the level stretches which could be put under the plow, 

 but also turned his attention to the hills where this process of deforesta- 

 tion was continued for the purpose of adding a few acres for crop pro- 

 duction or grazing. Defensible as such a program is in general for the 

 pioneer, the results of continuing this process of forest destruction 

 beyond reasonable limits, are not difficult to picture. We need only 

 to turn to sections in China or other countries to see the effect of total 

 forest destruction on the surrounding country. Even though the 

 topography of the state is not such as to cause the worst damage after 

 the cutting of the forests, yet any fair minded citizen can see the many 

 undesirable features of continuing such a policy. 



We are told that some of the best developed commercial countries 

 of Europe have reserved as timber lands from 20 to 29 per cent of their 

 total land area. We are further told that countries depending to a large 

 extent on their own timber production must have approximately this 

 percentage of their land surfaces reserved for timber production. The 

 fact that the state of Iowa is able to draw its principal lumber and tim- 

 ber supplies from adjoining states does not indicate that it is desirable 

 to allow waste areas or rough lands to remain idle or only partially pro- 

 ductive when such areas are particularly well adapted to the production 

 of timber. Prom an economic standpoint, it is not desirable for the 

 state to permit potential forest areas Which cannot well be handled 

 through individual means, to remain idle or only partially productive, 

 just the same as we would consider it undesirable for the fanner to dis- 

 regard the cultivation of a tract of agricultural land merely because it 



