Most people think of Iowa as a rich, agricultural state with seas of corn and a dearth of forest lands. While this is essentially true, there are still two and one-half million of the original seven million acres of forests in our state. Basically, the timber is still confined to the principal waterways and the rolling hills, and is made up almost entirely of hardwoods. More than 88 percent of the forest lands are privately owned by some 35,000 Iowa families. Approximately 30,000 acres of forests are under state ownership, and 13,000 acres are presently owned by the Federal Government.