Illinois has within its total land area of approximately 35,800,000
acres, 2,500,000 acres of land that should be reforested. These lands
are lying idle at present due to the fact that they are too poor for
agricultural purposes. As such they provide an economic burden to their
owners and to the State because they are unproductive. These same lands
will grow trees profitably, therefore, it is necessary that they be
planted to trees for a future timber crop which ultimately will bring a
revenue to the landowners and community.
To meet this situation, the Department of Conservation, Division of
Forestry has developed two large forest tree nurseries capable of
producing 15,000,000 trees annually for reforestation and erosion
control purposes. These trees are available to farmers and landowners at
prices varying from $5.00 to $15.00 per thousand, dependent upon the
species of trees desired. Trees secured from the State must be used only
for reforestation and erosion control and cannot be used for landscape
or ornamental plantings.
Definite progress has been made in the State reforestation program of
idle lands. The first major distribution of trees took place in 1936 at
which time 300,000 trees were planted in the State. Since 1936 the
State's reforestation program has steadily been enlarged to the extent
that in 1940, 6,250,000 trees were distributed from State nurseries and
in 1954, 9,996,000 trees left the Division's nurseries to be planted by
farmers and public agencies in the State.
Considerable progress has been made, however, it is hoped that the
reforestation program in Illinois will continue to expand until all idle
lands in Illinois are growing a useful timber crop.