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Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?

21 Feb 04 - 02:44 PM (#1120545)
Subject: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Peter T.

Somebody here might be less metrically challenged than I am, or more imaginative. I came across a reference that said that there were about 3,500 acres of original prairie in Illinois. Can anyone (1) tell me how much that would be in hectares; (2) how many square kilometres? (3) is that about the size of downtown Chicago?

I will be very, very grateful.

yours,

Peter T.

21 Feb 04 - 02:48 PM (#1120551)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: GUEST

Click Here

21 Feb 04 - 03:11 PM (#1120569)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Amos

Peter:

3500 acres seems low offhand to me. It is the equivalent of 1416.4 hectares, or about 14.16 square kilometers, or 5.4 square miles. Or, if you care, 560000 square rods.

A

21 Feb 04 - 03:18 PM (#1120574)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Peter T.

Thanks, Amos, adding to my already substantial indebtedness. The estimate is from National Geographic, October 1993.

yours, Peter T.

21 Feb 04 - 03:28 PM (#1120579)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Stilly River Sage

That figure on Illinois must be a mistake. The state used to be covered with prairie. I'd think even in terms of remnants, 3500 is low.

640 acres to a square mile.

21 Feb 04 - 03:32 PM (#1120582)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Stilly River Sage

An exerpt from the web page called "Restoration:"

    Illinois is called the Prairie State, but only remnants of the original prairie remain. Large-scale conversion into agricultural land and urban development has eliminated more than 99% of the state's original prairie. At two sites in northern Illinois, however, INHS is involved in large-scale prairie restorations. Both sites are military installations that are being transferred from the Army to other federal agencies as part of base realignment and closure legislation. In 1997, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), in cooperation with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), established Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie on 19,000 acres of the Joliet Arsenal in Will county. In the spring of 2000, the Savanna Army Depot, located in Carroll and Jo Daviess counties, will close and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will begin managing approximately 9,500 of its 13,000 acres as the Lost Mound Wildlife Area.


SRS

21 Feb 04 - 03:32 PM (#1120583)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Joe Offer

Unfortunately, I'd guess 3,500 acres of original prairie is a fairly accurate number for Illinois. There's very little virgin land anywhere in the United States, especially in the lands east of the Mississippi. There's lots of land that looks natural, but very little is in its original state. European plants have crowded out the grasslands on most of our prairie. I would suppose the same is true in Canada.

Here in California, we're called the Golden State because we turn brown in June. Those brown grasslands were once green year-round, because the native grasses are drought-resistant and keep their color. Right now, though, they're all green and fresh and beautiful with the spring and winder rain.

-Joe Offer-

21 Feb 04 - 03:44 PM (#1120593)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Nigel Parsons

One visualisation for an Acre (1/640 Sq Mile) is One chain (Cricket pitch) * One Furlong (10 cricket pitches)

Just trying to make things simpler!!!

Nigel

21 Feb 04 - 05:06 PM (#1120650)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

In Maine the estimated "virgin-old-growth" is ten acres. (No source...just heard it several times.)

Joe - I believe you are mistaken - even the "native grasses" of California turn brown...the state - as a whole (hole?) generally, receives less than 15 inches of rain/year.....somehow, I believe the 49'ers and the Gold Rush have more to due with its moniker. Not to mention a split-off from the rest of the nation its would make it's GDP the sixth largest producer in the world.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

21 Feb 04 - 07:01 PM (#1120723)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Peter T.

Thanks for the assistance. There is also some prairie around the Fermilab Accelerator near Batavia. So maybe we are into the 20,000 acre bracket.

yours,

Peter T.

21 Feb 04 - 09:24 PM (#1120796)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Hrothgar

Rough rules:

4000 sq metres = 1 acre = 10 sq chaims
2.5 acres = 1 hectare
1 hectare = 10,000 sq metres (100 x 100)
100 nectares = 1 sq km
250 acres = 1 sq km
2.5 sq km = 1 sq mile
1 sq mile = 640 acres = 6400 sq chains

Fine detail (which everybody desperately needs to know):
35.315 cubic feet = 1 cu metre
2.2046 pounds = i kilogramme

etc., etc., etc.

21 Feb 04 - 09:31 PM (#1120799)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Stilly River Sage

A chain is 66 feet, and there are 100 links in a chain. My pace, when I'm counting such things in forestry circles, is 13.5 paces. A pace is from a standing position forward one foot, then the other foot, then stopping. A full stride. I doubt they use it now, everything switched over to be based on a 100' engineers tape instead of the 66' chain back in the mid-1970s.

SRS

21 Feb 04 - 10:55 PM (#1120829)
Subject: RE: Help!Acres to Hectares to Sq Kilometres?
From: Rapparee

Shucks, when I'm pacing off distance I do it at 26 paces equals (damn near exactly) 25 meters, 104 paces to 100 meters. It's been that way ever since it was first measured back in 1963 and every time I've been able to check it since then.

(Sorry, my pacing for distance is metric because it was measured by the US Army. I also estimate range in metric, not English, for the same reason.)