Communities search for new varieties of trees

Logan Roepke of Common Scents Nursery plants an "Environmentally Adapted Tree Initiative" tree in Riverview Cemetery in McCook. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

McCOOK, Neb. -- The Forest Services of Nebraska and Kansas are cooperating on a tree-planting initiative designed to broaden the diversity of trees growing in communities on the Great Plains.

In Nebraska, 16 planting projects in 14 different Nebraska communities, including McCook, are being implemented this fall to test and display a wide variety of uncommon trees as part of the "Environmentally Adapted Trees Initiative."

Participating in the EAT initiative, a crew from the Common Scents Nursery in McCook planted trees Monday in McCook's Riverview and St. Patrick's Church cemeteries.

Certified arborist Bruce Hoffman, left, and Jacob Fritsche, on Bruce's left of Common Scents Nursery, McCook, plant "Environmentally Adapted Tree Initiative" trees in Riverview Cemetery in McCook. Bruce hopes the variety of trees planted in the cemetery will complement the "spectacular American elm trees" already growing there. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

The initiative is a cooperative effort of the U.S. Forest Service, which wrote a grant for the Nebraska Forest Service and Kansas Forest Service to work together, with the primary goal of increasing tree species diversity in Great Plains communities and in planted landscapes.

The initiative is being undertaken through a partnership of nursery professionals, arborists, foresters and outreach specialists from both Kansas and Nebraska.

According to Justin Evertson of the Nebraska Forest Service, one objective of the initiative is to work with the nursery professionals and tree experts to identify and prioritize the best of the proven but under-utilized tree species in the region and then actively promote the greater planting of those species. A second objective of EAT is to identify new or rarely seen species that hold potential for survivability in the region.

The Great Plains is known for its wide-ranging and frequently droughty climate that makes it difficult for many tree species to survive here. However, there are several species, including many native to the region or from similar climates in other parts of the world, that hold good promise for greater use on the Golden Plains.

Bruce Hoffman of Common Scents Nursery in McCook is organizing the tree trial in McCook. On Monday, Nov. 7, he and his tree crew, Jacob Fritsche and Logan Roepke, planted blackjack, chinquapin, shumard and buckley oaks, silver lindens, Ironwood, pecans, Japanese elms and Prairie Expedition (American) elms in McCook's Riverside Cemetery, and the same selection of deciduous trees and several conifers in St. Patrick's Cemetery.

Each tree was hand-planted, watered and mulched.

The initiative targets nearly 40 different species of trees for planting over the next two years. Not every site will test every species, but rather will test ten to 20 types that seem best adapted to the local planting site.

Many of the species selected for the trial are native to the region and reach their eastern or western limit in the Great Plains. This includes things like pecan, persimmon, bigtooth aspen, gambel oak, chinkapin oak and black cherry. A few species such as silver linden, shantung maple and david Japanese elm come from similar climatic extremes in Asia.

Arborists and forestry specialists believe that the loss of American elms decades ago and the likely loss of millions of ash trees across the region in the coming years due to emerald ash borer (EAB) are a stark reminder of the importance of species diversity across a community.

Additionally, Bruce said, the EAT initiative will help highlight a wider variety of adaptable species for local nurseries and garden centers to start carrying and promoting.