TECUMSEH – The Nemaha Natural Resources District is in the midst of a planting season that includes about 8,000 trees and a trend toward habitat plantings.

NRD Manager Kyle Hauschild: “When the NRDs were first formed in 1972, they gave us 12 goals and responsibilities and one of them was forestry. That was one of our main goals when the NRDs were formed.”

 

NRD Forester Mark McDonald, a former Arbor Day Tree Planter of the Year, is credited for planting a million trees with his crew over the years, but Hauschild said the pace is changing.

Hauschild: “A lot of the tree planting ideas have changed. We’re not putting in as many trees as we used to. We’re still getting the same benefit out of them. It used to be we would plant a lot of trees and cut the ones out that don’t live or compete with the others, now we’re putting in the right amount of trees that we’re supposed to.”

 

Originally, the tree plantings were all about windbreaks, but now orders are more likely to benefit habitat. One of the biggest planting jobs this year is 1,700 shrubs for quail habitat.

McDonald said plantings include hazelnut, choke cherry, elderberry and plumb bushes to provide winter cover over grasslands.

 McDonald: “Tree planting is part of the mission. It always has been. It’s been a pretty high priority on our list in the past quite a few years. It’s something that’s good for the people as well as the wildlife.”

The Nemaha NRD suspects it has had a role in the planting over 2 million trees in the past 53 years.

Hauschild: “We definitely transform the landscape. I mean if you came out here 200 years ago they had to bring in trees to do houses.

Being the home of Arbor Day we definitely focus on those trees and getting them out there. They serve many purposes, erosion and sediment control, dust control. You know there is nothing better than a shade tree in your back yard.”

The NRD says plantings that help wildlife also tend to benefit livestock and prevent soil erosion.