Seward County residents – in town and in the country – have a few opportunities to get help replacing trees lost to drought, storms and age.
But while there are differences between city tree issues and the country tree issues, the solutions differ mostly in volume.
Justin Evertson, a forester in the Nebraska Forestry Service, said both city and rural areas of eastern Nebraska are seeing a severe decline in established shade trees and “working trees,” or trees strategically placed to buffer against wind and snow.
Old age, weather and emerging insects and viruses are taking their toll.
Evertson said the emerald ash borer is now getting under the tree trunk bark and damaging the pathways that allow nutrients to travel into ash trees’ branches in southeast Nebraska.
As a result, people are seeing their ash trees dying from the top down. When this happens, people will see more woodpeckers and other birds working to extract insects from the trees, as well as D-shaped exit holes when the insects mature and move on.
Drought and windstorms have damaged many trees in the past five years, and Evertson said neighborhoods developed in the 1950s through 1970s are now seeing their mature trees declining.
The tendency in the past was to plant in “pulses” in which many of the same kinds of trees were planted as a neighborhood was developed. Right now, Evertson said, pin oak and maple neighborhoods are seeing trees near the end of their life spans battered by winds and pests.
Evertson said consumers and nurseries often focus on spring blooming trees and those that bring splashes of color in the fall when shopping for new residential trees. But not all of those can thrive in the climate here.
Storms hard
on windbreaks
Jay Seaton, a Nebraska Forestry Service forester who works with farmers and ranchers, said many shelterbelts and windbreaks in the state were planted in the 1970s and 1980s to protect houses, crops and soil from wind and snow.
Many of those trees are nearing the end of their natural life span and can also be damaged by some herbicides and diseases, such as pine wilt.
Seaton said it is not cause for panic, but it is time to start thinking about the next 40 or 50 years.
“Ninety-mile-per-hour winds seem to happen every other day in Nebraska. You want some type of protection,” he said.
He recommends farmers and ranchers start by contacting their Natural Resources District offices to learn about available bulk purchasing and planting programs, but there is also planting information available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other conservation specialists.
“We are encouraging folks to plant more native, local forest trees,” he said.
Doing so may help avoid some of the problems trees are now experiencing.
For example, the pine nematode is a pest that is native to this area and spreads pine wilt.
But many of the trees lost to the disease are Austrian and Scotch pines, which are not native to the area and cannot withstand the disease as well as other pines, Seaton said.
As Seward County residents plan to replace their shelterbelts and windbreaks, he said they should first look at those deciduous trees and consider how they should be spaced out to facilitate good growth.
Windbreaks should be planned to shelter rural homes and buildings, protect crops and keep soil in place.
Just like tree shoppers in town, rural planters want trees that look nice, but Seaton said pine, cedar and spruce trees are functional – “John Wayne” – trees for windbreaks.
“They are rough and tough and can survive anything,” he said.
But he also suggests doing multiple rows of trees for strength. That allows people to plant some of the trees they think are more attractive on the inside of the shelterbelt, more visible from the residential area.
“You are never too late to plant a tree. The best time was 20 years ago,” Seaton said. “The next best time is now.”
Seward offers ReLeaf
Seward City Administrator Greg Butcher said the city will continue to offer ReLeaf matches for property owners who want to add or replace trees that help replenish the city’s canopy.
The age of trees in some areas and the impact of storms have required many trees to be removed.
“I always encourage people to come look at the program,” he said of ReLeaf, for which requirements and application forms can be found on the city’s website, cityofsewardne.gov.
In recent years the city has altered some requirements in the program to allow property owners to plant trees further into their yards and not in the city rights of way where utility lines can be impacted by roots.
“We have tried to adjust the ReLeaf program to get people opportunities to get discounts,” Butcher said.
“Trees provide a buffer from street noise, clean the air, block the wind, shade the property, and can increase property values as much as 20 percent,” the ReLeaf website says.
Municipal codes outline the street-side planting requirements, including distancing trees from the site triangle of intersections and alleys, spacing and suggested tree types, but residents can be reimbursed for up to half the cost, maxing out at $150, for a 6- to 10-foot tree while this year’s funding lasts.
The suggested species of trees include multiple varieties of elm, gingko, hackberry, linden, maple, oak and sycamore trees, and ReLeaf applications must be approved prior to planting.
Butcher said they ask people to contact the city street department anytime they plan to do something involving a tree because, technically, it is against city code to remove a “street tree” planted near the curb.
“It is better to double check,” he said.
Butcher said the city removes trees all over town, but tries to plant a new tree for each one it takes down.
“The Tree Board has been very active,” he said.
After more than 20 street-lining trees were removed as part of the Highway 15 improvement project, Tree Board and city officials helped to get more than 50 trees planted in that stretch of the highway.
NRDs, others
aid bulk planting
The website for the Upper Big Blue NRD, which serves most of the western half of Seward County, offers seedling packages in multiples of 25 for windbreaks and wildlife habitat and includes Eastern red cedar, Colorado blue spruce, American plum, ponderosa pine, chokecherry, bur oak, lilac, Peking cotoneaster, red osier dogwood, black walnut and hackberry varieties.
Information on each tree’s average height, spacing recommendations and whether it is native in specific zones of the state is on the NRD’s website, upperbigblue.org/tree-program.
The Lower Platte South NRD, which serves most of the eastern part of Seward County, offers a 75% cost-sharing for a single landscape tree up to $200 on a first come, first served basis. The spring deadline to apply for this program is April 30.
It also has a community forestry program to assist neighborhood associations, villages, cities and service organizations purchase trees with up to $10,000 per application and requiring the purchasing group provide 25% of the trees’ cost. There is a June 1 deadline for this program.
The Lower Platte South NRD also offers a conservation forestry program for bulk purchases of trees and shrub seedlings for windbreaks and wildlife habitat.
LPSNRD program information is available at lpsnrd.org/programs.
PlantNebraska, formerly known as the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, offers three grant programs: Trees for Nebraska Towns, Greener Towns and Urban and Community Forestry Grants.
The organization distributes community grants for tree-planting each year, as well as offering lists of recommended trees and educational videos for planting trees.
Application periods for PlantNebraska’s Greener Towns, and Trees for Nebraska Towns programs are expected to be released on its website in early summer, plantnebraska.org.
PlantNebraska has also launched a disaster recovery program to help replant the thousands of acres and communities affected by wildfires. The fund will later be directed to areas impacted by other natural disasters.
For information about the disaster recovery fund or to make a gift to it, go to plantnebraska.org/replant.
