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BROWNFIELD WOODS: A REMNANT OF THE 

 ORIGINAL ILLINOIS FOREST 



By Clarence J. Telford, Forester 

 Illinois State Natural History Survey 



"Brownfield Woods" approximates 56 acres of woodland in a nearly 

 virgin condition, situated three miles northeast of Urbana, Champaign 

 county, Illinois. Through the generosity of the owners the public has en- 

 joyed unregulated access to this beautiful woodland, and it is visited by 

 thousands each year. The writer was interested to find a knowledge 

 and appreciation of this woodland to be almost state- wide. Together with 

 the thousands of well-intentioned and appreciative visitors, there is the 

 inevitable minority of vandals whose depredations are changing the con- 

 dition of this unique woodland. 



Added to this deterioration incident to use, is the possibility that the 

 woodland will be logged off. The survey upon which this article is based 

 was made at the request of the owners to determine the quantity of 

 timber on the area. A survey of the timbered areas of fully 66 per cent 

 of Illinois, covering in detail all but the prairie counties, has disclosed 

 but one other piece of upland timber at all comparable to Brownfield 

 Woods in the number of splendid old forest giants ; hence it may safely 

 be described as one of the best upland stands now growing in the state. 

 Splendid as is this remnant, the few persons who retain accurate im- 

 pressions of the original body declare that this remaining wood-lot is 

 scarcely a fair sample of the splendid forest called by settlers, "The Big 

 Woods." Very few measurements from the original forests of Illinois 

 have been preserved, and with the disappearance of these forests and of 

 the generation which knew them, too frequently there passes all knowl- 

 edge of the monarchs which once grew where, in this later day, grow 

 lesser trees of monotonous uniformity. 



The upland forests of the state, both second growth and virgin, show 

 a decided variation in composition for different regions. As a broad 

 generalization it may be stated that the forests of the southern part of the 

 state and of the Wabash region show the greatest variety and best de- 

 velopment of species, and that the tendency toward fewer species is 

 evident in progressing northward. Throughout the southern section the 

 original forests were continuous, but in the central part of the state, 

 and to a less extent in the northern, the prairies dominated the uplands, 

 and the forests were belts along the streams. 



Champaign county is a fairly representative prairie county and the 

 total of these original forests comprised 7 per cent of its area, or 47,659 

 acres. These forest belts occupied the flood-plains of the streams, and 

 the slopes — often very gentle — between the flood-plains and the prairies. 

 They were rarely more than two miles wide, nor did they usually con- 

 tinue up the stream quite to its source. During the past seventy-five 

 years the forested areas have been progressively cleared. By 1870 the 

 original forest of 47,659 acres had been reduced to 16,780 acres. There 



