In the last couple weeks, we have discussed that it’s time to get off our keisters if we want trees for the spring of 2026, and what programs we can find to cost-share them. I constantly preach plant diversity in this column, over and over, beating a dead horse, except when it comes to our tree species. Don’t get me wrong, I think we should still use as many native species as we can but the list is short. The term native when it comes to tree species can be a bit loose sometimes as this was prairie the native trees we have is few and far between.
Something big we have to keep in mind is that this was prairie, trees really aren’t supposed to grow here so there are a limited number of species that will do well. This also comes with the asterisk that we need to keep the grass out if we want this select group of trees to do well. The further west we go in my coverage area, the harder it is to grow trees. Now this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible, but we need to stick to the trees that are “native” and take care of them (keep grass out). There are actually more shrub species that are truly native to here than trees, though some of those are shorter in stature that may not be best for shelter belts but would be great for shrub clumps (more on those some other day).
Of course, the most popular tree planted (though we have tried to flip the breaks) is the Eastern Red Cedar. On its face it is a good tree, very good at blocking the wind and hardy to our climate. The issue is that it spreads worse than Russian Olive and Siberian (Chinese) Elm combined. If we were in a strictly woody environment or used fire on our grasslands more often it wouldn’t be an issue. If you look up and down the river anytime you pass through Chamberlain on the interstate and you should see why it’s an issue. If you want to harvest cedar lumber in 50 years and want to create temporary turkey habitat then this is a great sight. If you want to graze cattle, then you’re out of luck. Once cedars get that high of canopy cover, there isn’t any grass left to graze. If you think it’s great for pheasants then you are probably one of the people that believe the myth turkeys eat pheasant chicks or pheasant eggs. None of which is true, it’s a change from grassland habitat to woody habitat. Eventually the cedars get too thick even for the turkeys, but for a few decades it will work for them.
What I’m saying is there is a place for cedars, but we definitely need to be thoughtful when including them into a plan. Rocky Mountain Junipers can be an almost similar replacement as they do not spread in our area. It’s still a little uncertain why they don’t spread here as they do further west. One theory is the heat and humidity, but in any event they can be a decent tree to plant that won’t take over the neighboring pasture or other grassland. Those are basically the only two conifers I feel comfortable planting outside of a lawn especially after all the disease and death loss we have seen in our pines and spruces. I’ve never been one to recommend spruces in belts, I know they look nice in your yard but they don’t look nice when they die off in your belt. Think about how dense we plant our tree belts, even in recent years where we have tried to increase the space between trees. It’s still very high populations of single species; species that are extremely out of their natural environments; get some stressors like drought or super wet years and you have a breeding ground for disease. Like I said, I don’t feel comfortable planting pines or spruces. I just think it is too much of a risk to put in all the work and have a complete die off 15 to 20 years later.
Here’s my golden list - Tall Trees: American Elm, Cottonwood, Hackberry, Honey Locust (no not thornless), Bur Oak; Medium Trees: Boxelder, Amur Maple, Quaking Aspen; Shrubs: Smooth Sumac, Nanny Berry, Choke Cherry, American Plum, maybe Silver Buffalo Berry, Caragana or Lilac; Wetland Trees: Silver Maple, Peachleaf Willow, Sandbar Willow, Redoiser Dogwood; Eastern Red Cedar, Rocky Mountain Juniper if you must have a conifer.
Just a little follow up to the “what the” some of you have about the list. I wasn’t kidding, it’s not long. I’m not just blowing smoke here, this is over 20 years of observation, under the conditions our tree belts are exposed to here. Even some of the species on this short list are only in certain areas and for certain situations.
For those of you that cuss Cottonwoods, there is not a tree available that will grow taller, grow faster, or live longer. There just isn’t. If we are planting a tree belt it’s to block wind. What do we look for when we block wind? Density and height. Well only one tree is going to give us the height of a Cotton Wood and that is a Cottonwood. Another reason to go wider and plant 8 rows instead of 5, you can put that Cottonwood in a place where the branches will stay in the tree belt. Honey Locust are probably the most hardy tall trees we have available if they are the ones with thorns. I bring this up as it has been popular for many years to try and create trees that do away with the problems we think the originals have like cotton-less Cottonwoods, thornless Honey Locust, or any other hybrid tree we can think of. Hybrids are good for corn not for trees. Those famous fast-growing Willows? Junk. Grow fast, die fast. The only 2 species of willows you need to know are the 2 listed above. Sandbar are the shrub willow and Peachleaf are the tree. I’ve never understood why we try to plant the non-native Golden Willows when we have those available, especially if we need a shrub.
I could go on and on, but the point is we need to plant trees that work. We need to do some actual management on our tree belts so we don’t think all we can grow are cedars and Smooth Brome. We need to have common sense when it comes to planting trees in what was a treeless grassland.