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 Eight for 2008
Because one of the goals of ReTree Nebraska is to increase species diversity in community forests across our state, ReTree Nebraska is announcing "Eight for 2008." This list includes trees that grow well in Nebraska, but are often under-utilized. For more information about these, and other under-utilized species, contact retreenebraska@unl.edu.
| Evergreen |
| concolor fir—Abies concolor |
| Small to Medium Deciduous Trees |
| Shantung maple—Acer truncatum (medium) |
| 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’) |
