Why is species diversity important?

Species diversity is a common measure of a community forest's overall health. In a sense, increasing species diversity prevents us from "putting all our eggs in one basket" and prohibits any single insect or disease from destroying a community's entire forest resource. Pine wilt, Dutch elm disease and the approaching emerald ash borer (EAB) all reinforce the importance of species diversity. In fact, forestry experts recommend that no single species make up more than 10 percent of the entire community forest resource.

ReTree Nebraska's Good Trees for the Good Life

Because one of the goals of ReTree Nebraska is to increase species diversity in community forests across our state, ReTree Nebraska is announcing "Good Trees for the Good Life." This list includes trees that grow well in Nebraska, but are often under-utilized. Starting in 2008, a tree species will be added each year to the previous selections until 2017 creating "Eight for 2008," "Nine for 2009,"..."Seventeen for 2017." For more information about these, and other under-utilized species, contact retreenebraska@unl.edu.

Nine for 2009

Evergreen

concolor fir—Abies concolor

Small to Medium Deciduous Trees

Shantung maple—Acer truncatum (medium)

Miyabe maple—Acer miyabei (medium) (2009 addition)

Large Deciduous Trees

Kentucky coffeetree—Gymnocladus dioicus

northern catalpa—Catalpa speciosa

baldcypress—Taxodium distichum

bur oak—Quercus macrocarpa

chinkapin oak—Quercus muehlenbergii

elm hybrids—Ulmus x (‘Accolade’, Cathedral’, ‘Frontier’, ‘New Horizon’, ‘Pioneer’, ‘Triumph’, ‘Vanguard’)

(scroll below for images)

 

Finding "Good Trees for the Good Life" tree species

Easily identify "Good Trees for the Good Life" at participating ReTree nurseries by looking for this preferred speices tag.

 

concolor fir—Abies concolor

 

Shantung maple—Acer truncatum (medium)

 

Miyabe maple—Acer miyabei

 

Kentucky coffeetree—Gymnocladus dioicus

Fall color

 

northern catalpa—Catalpa speciosa

Catalpa in bloom

 

baldcypress—Taxodium distichum

Fall color of baldcypress.

 

bur oak—Quercus macrocarpa

 

chinkapin oak—Quercus muehlenbergii

 

elm hybrids—Ulmus x (‘Accolade’, Cathedral’, ‘Frontier’, ‘New Horizon’, ‘Pioneer’, ‘Triumph’, ‘Vanguard’)

Young elm hybrid tree.