Most of woodland loss was from selloff of timber and conversation to cropland and pasture.

The five year period with dramatic forest conversion was 2009-2013 which coincides with the run up in commodity prices

Cites a local broker:  “High-demand woodland for hunting maybe goes for about $2,000” an acre, Tauke said. “If you had some acres and were thinking about selling them, you would clear the trees and sell it as crop ground. Suddenly, it’s worth three, four times as much.”

Trees can serve to separate crops from rivers and streams to limit  fertilizer nutrients that might flow into waterways.

Many Iowa forests cut have been old growth forests.  From ’09-’13 there was 192,000 acres of trees cut and 95,000 acres planted for net loss of 97,000 acres

http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/iowa-has-lost-acres-of-forest-land-in-recent-years/article_85b51587-a9c0-55f1-af41-910e6e234f48.html