Minnesota contains an ecologically rich and unusually diverse landscape of native prairies, old oak forests, high bluffs, steep ravines, rugged rock outcroppings, wetlands, spring-fed trout streams, and the Mississippi, and this region is part of the Eastern Broadleaf forest. To showcase the area’s native trees and woody plants, a reforestation project began here in 1997 in a former cornfield, where hundreds of trees and shrubs representing thirteen species were planted, including sugar maple, basswood, white oak, red oak, northern pin oak, bur oak, green ash, black ash, black cherry, black walnut, wild plum, dogwood, and chokecherry. Some of these trees will live for more than 100 years. Old-growth forests once covered one-half of Minnesota, with great stands of oak, pine, maple, and basswood, but beginning in the mid-1800s these trees were cut for homes, businesses, industries, and the timber trade. Approximately 92 percent of Minnesota’s old-growth trees have been harvested, and today old-growth forests cover less than four percent of the state. To preserve them, 38,000 acres of state land has been set aside, with protected old-growth forests in southeastern and northern Minnesota. Minnesota has three general forest types: lowland forest along floodplains and swampy areas, where common trees include silver maple and cottonwood and groundcover typically includes sedges and wood nettle; xeric forest in well-drained areas with drought-tolerant trees such as oak, with groundcover including wild geraniums and false Solomon’s seal; and mesic forest in moderately moist soil with maple and basswood, where a dense canopy forms and groundcover includes trout lilies, trilliums, and Jack-in-the-pulpit.