Get your tree order in early!

It’s not too late to get your tree order into the Lower Niobrara NRD as the cold wind blows this winter. It is the right time to start considering planting a new windbreak or filling in your old windbreak that has lost trees over the years. Windbreaks consisting of a variety of trees and shrubs, if properly planted, will reduce wind velocity, which impacts the distribution of blowing snow. Windbreaks can spread snow across protected areas to provide moisture for crops and rangelands, protect livestock by decreased drifting, and reduce energy cost.

Windbreaks are not only beneficial in the winter, trees and shrubs also offer habitat for wildlife and create shade on hot summer days, and nothing says fall like the beauty of leaves changing colors. In an effort to protect property and the future of natural resources, the Lower Niobrara NRD offers the following conservation trees.

Tentative Tree Species for 2024

(Click for a full description of the Tree)

Conifers: Red Cedar, Colorado Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce, Jack Pine, Scotch Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Austrian Pine, SW White Pine and Rocky Mountain Juniper

Broadleaf Trees: Black Walnut, Bur Oak, Red Oak, Swamp White Oak, Catalpa, Cottonwood, Crabapple, Hackberry, Honey locust, Silver Maple, Amur Maple, and Manchurian Apricot.

Shrubs: American Plum, Buffaloberry, Caragana, Chokecherry, Chokeberry, Cotoneaster Peking, Elderberry, Golden Current, Redosier Dogwood, Serviceberry, False Indigo, Nanking Cherry, Sand Cherry, Common Lilac, Vilosa Lilac, Skunkbush Sumac, Wood’s Rose and Hazelnut.