Forests

A forest is a biological community that is dominated by trees and other woody vegetation.

More than 250 species of trees can be found throughout the forests of Illinois. The forests of Illinois are temperate forests—they have four seasons.
There are 4 main types of Illinois forest

Elm-ash-soft-maple forests are mostly bottomland species that occur along small and large streams and major rivers.
Oak-gum-cypress forest is found in the bottomlands of southern Illinois. It grows in very wet soil and is called “swamp.”
Oak-hickory, the major Illinois forest type, has 22 different species of oak and 16 different species of hickory.
Beech-maple forest is composed mostly of maple, which tolerates shade better than oak and hickory.

Originally, Illinois had 13.8 million acres of trees (shown in gray on the map). Today, we have about 4.3 million acres (shown in green).

Much of the forests were cleared for farming before settlers learned how valuable the prairie lands were for agriculture.

In addition, Illinois had a very important timber industry and forests were cleared for lumber and firewood.

Illinois forests are now increasing as more trees are planted.