Cottonwood trees latest to fall victim to good intentions

"Only you can prevent forest fires!" scolds Smoky Bear in those old posters, and it's still an important message for hikers and campers who spend any time in the mountains.

Many of us watched Ken Burns' latest PBS series, "The Dust Bowl," pointing out the importance of conservation measures on the Great Plains.

Long-time residents of land along the Republican River can recall the horror of the 1935 flood, and the decades-long effort to establish dams for flood control, as well as irrigation and recreation.

Those are all good things, but they all carry unintended consequences.

Forest fires are a natural thing, returning minerals to the environment and actually a required compenent in the life cycle of certain trees.

Conservation dams and minimum tillage farming practices have preserved thousands of acres of cropland, but reduced runoff that used to reach the Republican River -- and eventually, Kansas, -- to fulfill requirements of the Republican River Compact.

Now comes word from the Nebraska Forest Service that those same conservation practicies are actually endangering our state tree.

The problem is, the eastern cottonwood grows best on bare, moist soil -- the kind that lines rivers following seasonal flooding that has been limited by flood control measures.

That, coupled with land conversion, livestock grazing, herbicide damage and encroachment by invasive species like eastern red cedar or Russian olive, and channelization of rivers, has decreased the cottonwood population.

Those of us who grew up along a Nebraska river remember plucking a large leaf from a gnarly-barked cottonwood, folding it in half and blowing to create an organic, monotoned oboe.

With summertime came showers of shimmering cotton, the distinctive rustle of Populus deltoides leaves, which form colorful playground mounds come fall.

Native Americans and early settlers used the eastern cottonwood tree for fireword, as landmarks on the barren plain, and as construction materials. Cottonwood is still the most harvested and processed type of tree species in the state.

We aren't going to take out flood control dams, Nebraska Forest Service/ UNL Extension forester Dennis Adams said, but there's no reason not to allow natural regeneration in marginal cropland along rivers.

"For cottonwood to continue to be a significant forest resource in the future, intervention by us may be necessary to regenerate this historic forest resource, not only for wood products, but for the important wildlife habitat, watershed protection and other environmental benefits cottonwood forests provide," Adams said.