OVER 146,000 TREES PLANTED IN 2007 IN LOWER LOUP NRD
This year, 146,201 trees started new jobs as they were planted across the Lower Loup Natural Resources District. They’ve taken up residence along streams and rivers, at the edges of fields, and on the sides of hills.
The Lower Loup NRD's tree planting program is one of the largest in the state and covers the entire District. The NRD is made up of all or parts of 16 Nebraska counties. Landowners and NRD crews planted over 40 species of trees and shrubs in 2007.
One of the most popular species again this season was red cedar. This perennial favorite performs well in a variety of situations and soil types. There were 58,896 red cedars planted across the Lower Loup NRD throughout the spring and early summer. Other popular varieties of trees and shrubs included Ponderosa pine, chokecherry, plum and sand cherry.
The trees and shrubs planted across the District in 2007 are serving a variety of purposes. The majority was planted as part of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) plans, providing field windbreaks and wildlife habitat. Others were planted as livestock windbreaks and some will serve as wildlife habitat through the Corners for Wildlife program. Others are acting as farmstead windbreaks or serving as riparian forest buffers. Some are part of forest plantations.
Trees in the District are planted in two ways. The landowner can either plant his trees by hand or NRD employees will plant the trees by machine. The total number of trees hand-planted in the District this year was 38,747 and the machine plant total was 107,454.
Many of the trees planted across the Lower Loup NRD got their start in Nebraska. The U.S. Forest Service grows the majority of the seedlings planted in the state at the Nebraska National Forest at Halsey. The seedlings, when they are two years old, are distributed to NRDs statewide through the Nebraska Association of Resources Districts.
Additional trees were ordered through nurseries in Colorado and North Dakota. Most often, these trees were of a variety not available from Nebraska nurseries.
For more information on how to put the various conservation tree programs to work on your land, contact your nearest Natural Resources Conservation Service office.
For more information on trees and tree planting, contact Richard Woollen, North Central District Forester, at the NRD Headquarters in Ord.
To visit the NRD Conservation Tree page, click here.
