Document Type

Research

Keywords

Forest cover, original forest, forest inventory, Iowa's forests, General Land Office Survey

Abstract

Concern for the reliability of the acreage data of lowa"s forest cover at the time of settlement prompted an investigation of authorship of the map of original forest cover, the county tabulation of forest area, and the technique used in area determination. Remeasurement of the 1832-1859 General Land Office township maps from eight test counties confirms that transecting of the township lines was the technique used in 1935 by State Forester G. B. MacDonald. The results found in remeasurement differed from 1 percent to 50 percent for individual counties but tended to agree well enough in aggregate to make the earlier data acceptable. However, rereading of the original survey notes suggests that an unknown but possibly sizable amount of land indentified as forest in 1832 to 1859 would not be considered forest in 1987.

Publication Date

December 1987

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

Issue

First Page

116

Last Page

120

Copyright

Language

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Thomson, George W. (1987) "Iowa's Forest Area in 1832: A Reevaluation," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 94(4), 116-120.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol94/iss4/6

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Iowa's Forest Area in 1832: A Reevaluation

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