I was inspired to write this article during a recent foot patrol through Mericle Woods State Preserve three miles northwest of Toledo. This preserve is a 132-acre public area of mature oak forest. A study revealed that trees exceeding 200 years of age are found in Mericle Woods. Eight such trees, all white oaks, are found in the preserve. The two oldest trees in Mericle Woods both began growth in about 1727 and are thus over 290 years old. Ten of 28 trees in Mericle Woods are at least 170 years old. The trees studied in Mericle Woods indicate that this land was a prairie savanna at the time of settlement in the mid-1800’s. Tree core samples show that no cutting of trees has occurred in proximity to these trees since they began growing. What became Mericle Woods State Preserve was donated to the Iowa DNR in 1984 by Burrell “Ben” and Nell Benjamin. It was dedicated as a biological state preserve in 1986. Ben and Nellie named the preserve as a memorial to her parents who had a likeminded interest in conservation. Nellie Mericle was born in 1902 on the family farm north of Toledo where she grew up. She was once a rural school teacher in Tama County’s Carlton Township. She graduated from Iowa State University in 1925 and went on to teach in high school and junior college. Nellie married Burrell “Ben” H. Benjamin in 1947. I have heard Ben described as a colorful character. He was born in 1920 and was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II. According to one story that I have heard, Ben was on the island of Java when the Japanese invaded that island. Upon seeing the enemy at hand, Ben and other servicemen disabled some sort of large gun so it would not fall into enemy hands. Ben and other American serviceman crossed the island to rejoin American forces thus avoiding capture. Upon their marriage two years after the war, Ben and Nellie lived in many places across the U.S. in conjunction with Ben’s work as a salesman for Rath Packing Company. In 1962, Ben and Nellie settled back to the Mericle family farm where they farmed at what is today 2882 Highway 63 just north of town. They were known for being protective of their timber now known as Mericle Woods State Preserve. Realizing the outstanding biological worth and aesthetic value of their timber, Ben and Nellie contacted the DNR and donated the land for permanent protection as a state preserve. Like Mericle Woods, the vast majority of public lands in Iowa managed by the state have been acquired through landowners making initial contact with the DNR. Eminent domain is not used by the DNR to acquire public land and the DNR does pay property taxes on lands they manage. Today, 40 percent of the lands that make up state public areas are forested; 17 percent are comprised of soils that are permanently or seasonally saturated by water; and 14 percent of state lands are water. Thirty-seven percent of the public lands managed by the state are classified as highly erodible. Iowa is comprised of 36 million acres. The total percentage of state public lands available to Iowans in the entire state is one percent, which comes to 382,824 acres that are publicly available for use including state parks, wildlife management areas, public hunting areas, trails and lakes. To put it in perspective, the amount of land in Iowa’s road right-of-ways now totals 919,405 acres. Iowa ranks 47th in the nation for fewest acres for public use. Ben died at the age of 73 in 1993. Nellie died at the age of 98 in 2001. Their legacy lives on as one spends a good portion of a day walking the forested ridgelines within Mericle Woods. The area is now managed by the DNR as a wildlife refuge consistent with the final wishes of Ben and Nellie.