Nebraskaland

May 2024 • Nebraskaland 53 Bad News for the Beef State Cows don't eat cedar trees. In Nebraska, the beef state, where 1.8 million cows and calves graze in pastures across the state, the cost of eastern red cedar encroachment into rangeland is significant and growing. In 2019, Nebraska lost 419,000 tons of range production to woody encroachment. Kansas lost 1.5 million tons of forage that year, and Oklahoma 4.5 million tons. "We're following the trajectory of those states, said Dillon Fogarty, a range ecologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The lost grass could feed 88,000 cows and calves, and replacing it would require 700,000 round bales of hay. The cash rental rates of the pasture lost would amount to $18 million. "Our rangelands are worth a whole lot in this state," Fogarty said. "Woody encroachment is taking an increasingly bigger piece of the pie every year." If you have even one seed-producing cedar tree where you don't want more, you have a problem. The species is spreading in every corner of the state, and even in the Sandhills, often where planting cedar windbreaks introduced a seed source where there was none. In all, 8 million acres of intact grassland are at risk of future encroachment. Though control efforts are underway, Fogarty said the rate of encroachment continues to increase, a troubling fact to range managers. Part of the problem is that control has often focused on removing mature trees, while seed from those trees sprouted in adjacent, intact grasslands, which grew, produced more seed and affected even more acres. The University and others are now preaching one message: Protect and grow the core. The core is the intact grassland, far enough from the seed source that it hasn't been infested. From there, work backward towards the forest, or even the windbreak, removing seedlings and seed trees. The most effective and least costly tool to use for these efforts is prescribed fire. Once those acres have been protected, go after the scattered trees in the grassland and, finally, the mature stands. There are numerous sources of cost sharing assistance for cedar control efforts. Pheasants Forever has nine coordinating wildlife biologists around the state who help landowners connect with those resources. Andy Moore fills that role in the Loess Canyons, working out of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission district office in North Platte. He said the Natural Resources Conservation Service's Great Plains Grassland Initiative is one source that has grown significantly in both manpower and funding in recent years, helping offset the cost of mechanical removal, prescribed burn planning, deferred grazing and more. The Nebraska Forest Service provides assistance in developing fire breaks around burn units and structures within the units. Game and Parks' Natural Legacy Program can fill in the gaps. Other sources of funding and technical assistance in the state include The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Districts, the Nebraska Environmental Trust and conservation groups, including the Sandhills Task Force, The Nature Conservancy, the National Audubon Society, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Quail Forever, National Wild Turkey Federation and the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. Seventeen formal prescribed burn associations in the state work together to tackle the problem. Scott Stout, a rancher and member of the Loess Canyons Rangeland Alliance, said the best time to start controlling cedars is when you have a few. Wait, and the problem will grow like it did in his region, one of the most infested in the state prior to widespread control efforts. "If you don't start now, it's going to get out of hand." Cows graze on grasses growing beneath the skeletons of cedars and other trees killed in a recent prescribed burn on the Russ Sundstrom ranch south of Maxwell.

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