County Woodlands

The table below shows the number of acres (in thousands) of woodland by county estimated by four different surveys over the last 200 years in Illinois.  These numbers have been excerpted from the "Forest Resources in Illinois, 2002" report by Bretthauer and Edgington, and rounded to the nearest 1,000 acres.  In the report, the authors explain that the Forest Service went to some effort to standardize the 1998 (satellite) and 1985 (aerial) surveys so that they could be compared meaningfully.  The same cannot be said of the 1924 and 1820 surveys, the former taken by car and horseback and the latter by examining land office records.  So, compare these numbers horizontally with a good deal of caution.

A map of the 1820 land office records is available here.

The table also includes the number of individuals owning forestland in each county from a study by Mary Lowry of the University of lllinois in 1996.  She used tax assessor records to count anyone owning 15 acres or more.

To make the acreage numbers more meaningful, the rightmost column shows the size of each county in thousands of acres.  If woodland acreage is 50% or more of the county's entire land area, the acreage is in boldface.

COUNTY	# of Forest	1998	1985	1924	1820	County
NAME	Landowners	USDA FS	USDA FS	INHS	Land Office	Size
	1996	(000 acres)	(000 acres)	(000 acres)	(000 acres)	(000 acres)
Adams	1,167	101	72	38	292	548
Alexander	311	71	55	44	148	151
Bond	615	41	36	19	76	243
Boone	86	1	0	5	83	180
Brown	611	56	55	15	156	196
Bureau	647	39	50	34	116	556
Calhoun	683	69	76	39	141	136
Carroll	451	27	16	25	152	284
Cass	350	38	43	33	91	241
Champaign	80	3	4	6	40	638
Christian	252	17	18	4	53	454
Clark	885	60	72	NA	175	321
Clay	772	44	44	34	112	300
Clinton	824	27	24	56	97	303
Coles	493	42	26	33	104	325
Cook	44	50	34	24	82	605
Crawford	768	53	60	27	156	284
Cumberland	645	27	16	22	82	221
Dekalb	133	2	4	6	30	405
Dewitt	147	6	6	3	50	254
Douglas	38	7	8	3	41	267
DuPage	7	5	4	10	29	214
Edgar	493	9	9	39	136	399
Edwards	376	21	12	14	77	142
Effingham	785	60	63	30	87	307
Fayette	1,227	82	110	48	218	458
Ford	22	0	0	3	11	311
Franklin	494	55	67	41	214	263
Fulton	1,545	100	118	70	353	554
Gallatin	342	42	22	53	207	207
Greene	923	44	42	34	173	348
Grundy	199	4	4	9	24	269
Hamilton	621	37	36	35	254	278
Hancock	1,018	54	52	34	151	509
Hardin	470	65	58	35	112	114
Henderson	307	42	55	23	64	243
Henry	386	29	41	14	94	527
Iroquois	300	19	34	7	56	714
Jackson	1,007	141	129	92	361	376
Jasper	737	43	23	30	124	316
Jefferson	931	71	73	38	270	365
Jersey	709	46	44	47	142	236
Jo Daviess	1,042	61	56	60	307	384
Johnson	934	88	109	65	221	221
Kane	154	13	20	9	117	333
Kankakee	130	18	26	4	24	433
Kendall	118	6	10	9	22	205
Knox	656	37	36	36	138	458
Lake	84	23	0	19	190	287
LaSalle	557	42	46	29	111	726
Lawrence	460	31	38	25	145	238
Lee	212	25	21	11	47	464
Livingston	213	21	23	6	30	668
Logan	142	12	21	4	54	396
Macon	91	18	14	4	48	372
Macoupin	906	76	87	61	148	553
Madison	817	60	51	30	188	464
Marion	1,251	88	73	42	150	366
Marshall	281	23	21	27	67	247
Mason	227	27	19	39	78	345
Massac	538	32	41	32	154	153
McDonough	568	42	55	23	112	377
McHenry	386	27	32	7	166	387
McLean	205	13	11	7	82	758
Menard	135	28	25	22	69	201
Mercer	511	40	33	27	72	359
Monroe	734	57	49	58	218	248
Montgomery	666	47	55	47	97	451
Morgan	524	39	40	15	126	364
Moultrie	171	6	6	2	51	215
Ogle	512	38	36	28	178	486
Peoria	828	66	53	50	187	397
Perry	611	49	59	61	178	282
Piatt	37	3	3	3	24	282
Pike	1,197	115	162	34	364	531
Pope	560	158	124	65	236	237
Pulaski	339	42	37	24	129	129
Putnam	183	25	11	19	42	102
Randolph	730	84	92	80	278	369
Richland	776	41	34	23	120	230
Rock Island	346	42	28	36	147	273
Saline	438	62	59	35	245	245
Sangamon	222	40	47	61	124	556
Schuyler	845	76	84	38	200	280
Scott	487	15	14	11	99	161
Shelby	686	41	44	48	143	486
St. Clair	683	53	40	48	211	425
Stark	130	6	4	7	43	184
Stephenson	340	31	29	12	141	361
Tazewell	490	27	28	45	129	415
Union	957	116	100	73	263	266
Vermilion	323	42	46	6	118	164
Wabash	231	14	19	10	100	143
Warren	308	21	29	17	67	348
Washington	669	54	58	51	120	360
Wayne	876	63	56	70	290	457
White	502	43	49	19	295	317
Whiteside	439	19	15	17	155	438
Will	317	33	26	20	67	536
Williamson	802	93	74	40	258	271
Winnebago	267	35	35	18	94	328
Woodford	424	42	44	37	93	338
State Totals	51,938	4,331	4,266	3,022	13,804	35,165

Woodland:
Illinois        4,300,000 acres - 12% of land area

Neighboring States' Woodlands
Iowa            3,000,000 acres -  8%
Missouri    14,000,000 acres - 31%
Indiana        4,500,000 acres - 19%
Wisconsin 16,000,000 acres - 46%