For decades now, conservationists and researchers have been monitoring what’s known as the “Green Glacier.” It’s driven by the spread of eastern redcedar (red-cedar) trees from Texas all the way to the Northern Plains.
The University of Nebraska’s Dirac Twidwell says one of the drawbacks of this species is that their seeds can travel across a large area and it doesn’t take long for eastern redcedars to overwhelm the landscape as they grow.
“We’re seeing the equivalent of deforestation, but it’s trees driving the displacement of our grasslands.”
Twidwell says it’s not just open grasslands at risk, noting that redcedars create problems for urban areas, too. He says they do that by potentially fueling wildfires, harming wetlands and draining groundwater supplies– making the consequences far-reaching.
“You see impacts that affect every citizen, not just what’s affecting somebody’s individual ranch.”
South Dakota landowner Tom Hausmann didn’t think much of the trees popping up along his property at first, but he eventually realized their dense canopies were blocking out sunlight needed by the prairie grass in order to grow.
“Grass is all I have to sell. So, the bigger the tree gets, the less grass I have, the fewer cattle it can maintain, and it’s just worth less to anyone who wants to rent it.”
Hausmann now works with the Mid-Missouri Prescribed Burn Association to encourage other landowners to be more proactive about keeping redcedar trees off their property.
Twidwell wants to see landowners in the Northern Plains avoid the mistake made in Southern Plains states. Rather than chasing the spread, he encourages farmers and ranchers to get in front of it with preventive efforts such as prescribed burns.
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