Cottonwood Flowers

By: Mike Groenewold

It was a beautiful, calm spring day at Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area. Even work was a joy. Grant, my work partner, and I were trimming hazardous tree limbs from mature cottonwoods near a beach at Admirals Cove, near Lemoyne, Nebraska, and enjoyed a respite from the wind that wore us to a frazzle at Lake Minatare the day before. While working in our aerial lift unit we enjoyed a beautiful view of the lake and emerging cottonwood flowers in the trees we were trimming.  If you are a nature nut like me, you might also enjoy this macro view of expanding staminate, catkins (male flowers). The flowers will soon elongate to six inches and pollinate pistillate capusules (female flowers) on separate trees. Cottonwoods and willows, unlike some deciduous trees are dioecious (male and female flowers are born on separate trees). By June 1, or a month earlier in this abnormally warm spring, the pollination process will be complete and cottony seeds will disperse from the female trees and fuzz up the landscape.

It’s a wonderful time of year to be outside and while you are there, take time for a close up view of your favorite trees…they won’t mind if you check out their private parts.

Staminate male flowers on a cottonwood tree, Populus deltoides.

Great News for Gardeners and other Plant Geeks

By: Mike Groenewold, Park Horticulturist

A new plant hardiness zone map released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will not only be of interest to gardeners, but anyone planting trees, shrubs or other ornamental plants. Since 1920, the USDA has published a Plant Hardiness Map that divides the country into 13 plant zones reflecting an average of minimum winter temperatures for a given location for the last 30 years. Zone 13 on the plant zone map reflects the warmest region indicating a warmer winter temperature limit of survival while Zone 1 reflects the coldest region indicating a colder winter temperature limit of survival. The USDA rating system was recently updated with data measured at weather stations during the 30-year period, 1976-2005.

So, what are the implications of the new USDA Hardiness Zone Map? Previously, the southern half of the state was in Zone 5 and the northern half was in Zone 4. Only a few counties in the northern Panhandle are in Zone 4 on the new map, or put another way, 90 percent of the state is now in Zone 5. Whether you agree or not, the new hardiness zone map does reflect a global warming trend, but more importantly to the gardener this information means planting marginally hardy plants like peaches and apricots, is less risky in most of Nebraska. An ornamental tree favored by many gardeners is the magnolia tree. Nurserymen have often considered one magnolia species, Magnolia acuminata, worth trying on protected sites in southeastern Nebraska. Armed with new USDA hardiness zone ratings, residents of central Nebraska may want to try planting this beautiful species. No doubt, many gardeners and landscapers will have their own list of favorite, but marginally hardy plants which now may be worth planting.

Even though the USDA rating system gives gardeners and landscapers a predictable temperature range for plants that might survive in each zone, don’t always accept the information as gospel. Remember the USDA system is based on average minimum temperatures and not on the extreme minimum temperatures that can occur in each zone. You may find this information along with the USDA zone recommendation on plant labels that you purchase at your local nursery or garden center. So don’t overlook all of this valuable information for your locale when predicting whether the plants you select will survive over many years.

Many variables, like extended drought prior to arrival of winter weather, will influence how well a plant withstands extreme winter conditions, so visiting with respected plant experts may help you make a wise decision. And speaking of wise decisions, please don’t overlook the possibility that your favorite plant is potentially invasive. Land managers already have a long list of noxious and invasive plants to battle, so please don’t plant a species that could one day overwhelm a local ecosystem.

If you really get into the USDA plant zone rating system, visit the interactive map at www.plantmaps.com/usda_hardiness_zone_map.php. Click on your location in the map and load your plant hardiness zone…pretty cool stuff!

“Be A Radical” With Your Landscape Anyway

By Jon Morgenson

The winter months seem to be a good time to consider personal change, including your home landscape. If you are considering a change in your home landscape in the coming New Year to something say easier to care for, something easier on the environment that might save a few shekels as well as benefit wildlife then why not try something radical.

Take a serious look at your landscape and decide what is working and what isn’t; some parts may be working fine and holding their own, so leave them alone and incorporate them into a new plan. Decide where you want to make changes and consider if they would improve the sustainability of the landscape. The changes to be made can be done in steps over time.

During the planning process don’t be afraid to try something radical. Is there is an area that would lend itself to the creation of a natural area. Think about a small duplication of a local native environment. It could be a prairie (meadow), wetland (rain garden), woodland or woodland edge. These types of plantings can include native plants as well as adapted non-native plants that do not pose a threat of escape and damage to native areas. The long range hope for this type of planting is matching growing conditions with suitable plant materials so that everything works together to make the planting sustainable with minimum inputs. I’d like to give an example of a woodland edge planting.

Sample Woodland Edge Landscape Plan

This planting could include a large shade tree such as bur or red oak and a few understory (edge) trees like redbud, pawpaw, or hop-hornbeam. Shrubs to include could be gooseberry, coralberry, wolfberry, elderberry, and dogwood. Shade tolerant grasses such as Virginia wild-rye and bottlebrush grass along with perennials like elm-leaved goldenrod, Solomon’s seal, purple cone flower and columbine can be planted in groups among  the trees and shrubs. To keep the initial planting cost down use smaller groupings of purchased perennials and then collect seed as the plants mature which can be sown where desired to fill out the planting. This type of planting will provide landscape beauty as well as an area for wildlife to use and be viewed.

After the planting is established, watering, maintenance and other inputs should be low. Leaves can be left where they fall to decompose and add to soil fertility as well as act as a natural soil cover (mulch) and a place for birds and critters to forage and hide. With time and patience a small sustainable system can evolve. If you are feeling radical, try this type of planting in the front yard for everyone to see!

More about Aspens at Smith Falls State Park

by Mike Groenewold

Writing last spring, I mentioned Smith Falls State Park near Valentine has easily accessible aspen trees near the highest waterfall in the state, and that a management program is in place to help restore and maintain the aspens at the park. You won’t be disappointed if you visit the park and enjoy the short walk to see the trees and the falls.

Game and Parks staff and others are concerned because these small remnant stands of aspens are declining. A Biologist could write a book on the theory of their decline, but a host of factors seem to be at work. Climate change, disease and insects, as well as land use since settlement are some possible causes.  Most agree this landscape looked far different prior to settlement 130 years ago. The pine-covered uplands were much more open than today and interspersed with bur oak and red cedar. The aspens probably flourished in moist spring seep canyons. Occasional wildfires started by lightning or Native Americans as well as grazing by wildlife (such as bison) once maintained open woodlands. As as the region was settled, homesteaders protected their property by suppressing wildfires and the landscape changed dramatically. An open forest became a densely crowded forest.

The Smith Falls State Park Forest Enhancement project will hopefully reverse the decline of aspens in the park as we thin red cedar and excess ponderosa pine from the park forest. Eventually we hope to introduce prescribed fire to further restore and maintain the native grasslands and woodlands. This project is partially funded through a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust. The Trust is funded by proceeds from the Nebraska Lottery and has awarded more than $157 million to conservation projects in Nebraska since 1994.

There are four aspen groves, with four to six mature trees, and two aspen groves, with one to two mature trees, remaining in the park forest. Most competing red cedar trees have been thinned beneath the mature and declining aspens. With thinning complete we have noticed numerous sprouts developing from the roots of mature trees—definitely a good sign for our restoration efforts. Aspens will reproduce from seed, but new trees more readily develop from root sprouts.

Aspen sprout developing beneath mature aspen tree at Smith Falls State Park.

As you might imagine our work is not nearly complete. A host of organisms including insects, fungi and viruses attack aspen. Deer also browse the young sprouts and are the current obstacle to encouraging the development of sprouts into trees which might perpetuate the groves. Therefore, we have recently completed protecting a substantial number of sprouts in the four largest aspen groves with wooden stakes and plastic netting to discourage browsing by deer. We hope to protect sufficient numbers of young aspen to begin replacing the mature trees.

Watch for additional updates on the Smith Falls Forest Enhancement Project in 2012.

Plastic fencing was recently installed by staff of Nebraska Game and Parks and National Park Service to protect young aspen trees from browsing by deer.

Plastic fencing was recently installed by staff of Nebraska Game and Parks and National Park Service to protect young aspen trees from browsing by deer.

Authentic 1946 Christmas Dinner Planned at Fort Robinson SP

LINCOLN, Neb. – Tickets go on sale Nov. 7 for the 17^th annual Historical Christmas Dinner at Fort Robinson State Park.

The Dec. 3 dinner features the menu from the original Fort Robinson Remount Depot 1946 Christmas dinner. The menu includes roast turkey with cranberry sauce, oyster stew, giblet gravy, snowflake potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, buttered asparagus, green peas, shrimp salad with French dressing, hot rolls and three types of dessert. Guests are encouraged to dress in 1946 attire.

The 200 tickets for the dinner will be available on a first-come, first served basis beginning at 8 a.m. on Nov. 7. Tickets, limited to four per family, will be available at the park office, Chadron Chamber of Commerce and Rea’s Market in Harrison.

The dinner is a cooperative project of the park, Nebraska Historical Museum and the communities of Crawford, Chadron, Harrison, Whitney and others. Call the park office at 308-665-2900 to volunteer to help with the event or decorate historical buildings.