How much forest is there in Indiana?

On page 41 of The Vegetarian Myth, Lierre Keith writes plaintively about the forests of Indiana, which (she says) have been lost because:

"Now, instead, we have agriculture. Indiana was once home to over two million acres of praririe and forest. Only a thousand fragmented acres are all that remain. There were also thousands of acres of tupelo gum [...] Tupelo gums are crucial [...]"

Initially, I took Keith's emotional narrative about the forests of Indiana at face value. I've never been to Indiana, whereas Keith has "driven across Indiana four times". Hence, I accepted that Keith knew what she was talking about. Then I read the following comment in a customer review on Amazon. The reviewer wrote that Keith's assertion - as quoted above - is:

"mind-numbingly stupid: a trivial Google search reveals that Indiana has a land area of 22,955,000 acres, of which there are currently 4.5 million acres of forestland and 4.3 million acres of timberland. These represent 38% of the entire state!"

Who should I believe: the published author, or the amateur reviewer?

I've never set foot on USA soil, and I don't know anything about Indiana's forests (or lack thereof). But a quick Google search took me to a page on the USDA's Forest Service website, titled Forests of Indiana: their economic importance. On that web page, the Indiana State Forester writes:

"Almost 200 years ago, forests covered 85 percent of the state. By the early 1900’s, most forestland had been cleared to make room for farms, industry, infrastructure, and the growing number of Hoosiers. In 1922 State Forester Charles Deam predicted that Indiana would be treeless in 15 years. I’m pleased to report that as we enter the 21st century, forests have rebounded and now comprise almost 20 percent of the State (4.5 million acres)."

So, it seems fairly safe to say that there are currently millions of acres of forest in Indiana - not "a thousand fragmented acres", as Keith claims.

And, on the subject of the "crucial" tupelo gums (whose botanical name is Nyssa aquatica): according to Wikipedia, who in turn got their data from Elbert Little's Atlas of United States Trees, the tupelo gum's range doesn't actually extend to Indiana. Given that Elbert Little has a Ph.D in botany, and has published many books about trees, I think I'll take his word over Lierre Keith's on the subject of tupelo gums.

Below is a map, with the tupelo gum's range shown in green, and the state of Indiana shown in red: