Native trees for the Great Plains: Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, the Dakotas, eastern Colorado and Wyoming

On the eastern edge of the Great Plains, in Iowa and eastern Nebraska and Kansas, plant bur oak, chinquapin oak, black walnut and Kentucky coffeetree on the bluffs and river terraces. Farther west, where rain runs short and trees keep to the rivers and draws, plant hackberry, bur oak, American plum and chokecherry, and sand cherry on sand. In the Black Hills and along the Front Range the wild trees are mostly western ones, ponderosa pine and Rocky Mountain juniper among them, which we do not grow. Plant bare-root seedlings in spring, before the buds swell.

Where trees grow on the plains

Rain falls at more than 40 inches a year in the southeast of the plains and under 14 in eastern Montana, and droughts recur. Fire once swept the eastern tallgrass prairie every two to three years. Away from the big river valleys, trees held out only where it could not reach them: near cliffs, on islands and at bends in rivers. The plains hold five kinds of ground:

• The eastern edge, where tallgrass prairie met the eastern forest and bur oak ruled the savannas between them.
• The river corridors of the Missouri, the Platte and the Arkansas, where cottonwood was often the only tree on the western reaches.
• The Sandhills, 20,000 square miles of grass-held dunes in central Nebraska, the largest dune field in the Western Hemisphere.
• The Black Hills and the Pine Ridge, forested by ponderosa pine.
• The High Plains and the Front Range, with lime nearer the surface than in the east, up to the Rocky Mountain foothills.

Zones and when to plant

On the 2023 hardiness zone map the seven states run from 3b to 7b:

The coldest plains ground is 3b, along North Dakota’s border with Canada, and the warmest is 7a, from Wichita south to Oklahoma and in southeastern Kansas. Colorado’s 3b lies in its mountains and its 7b west of them, while its plains run from 5a to 6b. Wyoming’s plains read mostly 4b and 5a, with 5b around Cheyenne. Find yours with the ZIP code lookup.

Bare-root seedlings, the usual stock for windbreaks, go in during spring:

“The best time to plant tree seedlings is in the spring, before the buds begin to swell. Fall planting is usually not very successful.” (Nebraska Forest Service, Windbreak Establishment)

Iowa State finds spring best for bare-root stock too, though hardwoods planted after October 1 do fairly well until the soil freezes. Fall-planted conifers can dry out on warm winter days. For potted and balled trees, Colorado’s foresters plant in spring or early fall:

“Early fall, from Sept. 1 to about Oct. 15, is an ideal time to plant trees in Colorado.” (Colorado State Forest Service, Planting a tree this autumn? Don’t fall into these common mistakes.)

Blue Whale Trees ships live plants from February to May and in October and November, and holds an order placed outside those months for the next window.

The eastern edge: bluffs, savannas and river terraces

Bur oak is the plains oak. Its thick bark carries old trees through fire, it is among the most drought-resistant American oaks, and it pioneers into the prairie. It often dominates claypan and loess hills, and on the Missouri bluffs of eastern Nebraska it runs from trees at the foot to shrubs at the top. In eastern Iowa it fringes the prairie, as in the Great Lakes and Midwest. These grow wild in the river woods of the eastern edge:

Shrubs fill the bur oak woods and the oak savanna edges:

• American hazelnut, one of the commonest shrubs of those woods and the shrub row of a windbreak. Zones 4 to 9, 8 to 12 feet.
• Downy hawthorn, of savanna understories and prairie edges. Zones 3 to 8, 20 to 40 feet.
• Roughleaf dogwood, a thicket shrub that withstands drought and extreme cold. Zones 5 to 8, 6 to 15 feet.
• Leadplant, one of the few shrubs that live in open grassland. Zones 2 to 8, 1 to 3 feet.

We do not grow smooth sumac, common in those woods.

Rivers, draws and the Sandhills

Away from the eastern edge, native trees follow water: cottonwood leads the river forests, with willows, hackberry, boxelder and elm. We do not grow plains cottonwood, peachleaf willow or boxelder. Of ours, these take the rivers and draws:

• Common hackberry, wild in all seven states, whose roots reach 10 to 20 feet down in prairie soil. Zones 3 to 9, 40 to 60 feet.
• American plum, wild in all seven, whose thorny thickets slow wind erosion. Zones 3 to 8, 15 to 25 feet.
• Chokecherry, wild in all seven, planted in shelterbelts and on stream banks for its soil-holding roots. Zones 2 to 10, 20 to 30 feet.
• Red osier dogwood, for stream banks, wet ground and clay that floods. Zones 2 to 7, 6 to 12 feet.
• Buttonbush, wild in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, for standing water up to 3 feet deep. Zones 4 to 10, 5 to 12 feet.

On the Sandhills and other dry, sandy ground, plant sand cherry, whose roots run and sprout into patches and which takes drought and lime.

Eastern red cedar spreads where fire is kept out, into grasslands and riverside forests, and can close tallgrass prairie into cedar woods in as little as 40 years. Plant it only where quick shelter is needed or little else will grow, and keep it a few hundred yards from crabapples and hawthorns, which its rusts attack.

The Black Hills, the Pine Ridge and the Niobrara

Ponderosa pine forests the Black Hills over grassy parks and valleys, with birch and aspen higher up. Bur oak grows there and in Wyoming’s Bear Lodge Mountains between the pines and the grass, a shrub under the pines and a tree up to 69 feet by the streams. Rocky Mountain juniper reaches the Pine Ridge and the Wildcat Hills of the Nebraska Panhandle. We do not grow ponderosa pine, Rocky Mountain juniper, paper birch or quaking aspen.

In north-central Nebraska the Niobrara’s wooded canyon, nearly 400 feet deep, mixes eastern, northern and western trees. Paper birch and aspen grade into basswood, hop hornbeam and hazelnut. Bur oak and ponderosa pine make a savanna on the dry upper slopes.

Of ours, these belong here:

• American basswood, which follows the Niobrara west to the Black Hills. Zones 3 to 8, 60 to 90 feet.
• Hop hornbeam, for dry, rocky slopes. Zones 3 to 9, 25 to 40 feet.
• Canada buffaloberry, wild in the Dakotas, Colorado and Wyoming, a thornless shrub that fixes nitrogen on poor sand and gravel. Zones 2 to 8, 3 to 8 feet.

Shelterbelts, the High Plains and the Front Range

Planted trees

In 1935 federal foresters began the Prairie States Forestry Project, the largest tree planting ever undertaken, and in eight years set out more than 222 million seedlings in over 18,500 miles of shelterbelts. Most of the wide field belts have since been removed for center-pivot irrigation or larger fields. Near Halsey, in the Sandhills, a forest planted from 1902 on became the largest human-planted forest in the United States.

A shelterbelt 25 feet tall and moderately dense cuts the wind for 250 to 500 feet downwind. Weeds kill more new windbreaks than anything else, so keep a circle 36 inches across bare around each seedling for three to five years, and keep livestock out. Native hedges, screens and windbreaks gives the rows and the spacing.

The High Plains and the Front Range

On the Colorado plains the native trees are mainly plains cottonwood and willows by the streams, boxelder on wet soils and Rocky Mountain juniper on rocky ground. Ash is about 15 percent of the trees in Colorado’s towns, and black walnut, though no walnut is native to Colorado, is the walnut most planted there.

For lime and drought, plant the plains natives above: hackberry, bur oak, Kentucky coffeetree, chokecherry and American plum. Bur oak grows where as little as 15 inches of rain falls a year. On the poorest dry ground, plant prairie redroot, which fixes nitrogen and likes limy soil, or creeping juniper, an evergreen mat for sand and gravel.

In dry winters on the Colorado plains, water a planted tree after about two weeks without lasting snow, slowly and on a day above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Evergreens left dry show winter burn.

Pests, disease and deer

Emerald ash borer

Green ash, planted across Nebraska after Dutch elm disease, is in peril from emerald ash borer, and Nebraska’s foresters no longer recommend planting any native ash. In Colorado the borer was found in Boulder in 2013 and now reaches more than 20 Front Range cities. Kentucky coffeetree, native and pest free, is an alternative to ash and elm.

Bur oak blight

Bur oak blight, a leaf disease of bur oak alone, has been seen in Iowa since about 2005 and appears to be worsening across the western two-thirds of the state as rains come more often.

“As long as the rains keep coming, BOB will probably continue to intensify on upland sites across much of Iowa, and we could lose a number of stately bur oak.” (Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Bur Oak Blight)

Spores infect new leaves in wet weather in May, and by July the leaves die along the veins and brown in wedges. A fungicide injected in late May or early June, after the leaves expand, has shown promise in early studies.

Pine wilt and thousand cankers

Pine wilt is killing Scots pine, and Nebraska no longer recommends planting it. Thousand cankers disease, carried by the walnut twig beetle, kills black walnuts in the Rocky Mountain states within about three years of the first signs in the crown. The beetle travels in walnut wood, so never move walnut logs or firewood out of an infested area. It leaves pecan and the other hickories alone.

Deer, rabbits and livestock

Deer and rabbits browse young bur oak, chinquapin oak and hackberry. Cage or tube them for three years. Chicken wire or plastic guards keep rabbits off a small windbreak, and protecting trees from animals has the hardware.

Where to start

• Your state’s natives: Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming each have a list, longest in the east.
• A windbreak or screen: the tree finder is set here to zone 5, dry soil and a hedge or screen.
• A tree near the house: the site check tests a bur oak 40 feet from a wall.
• The first summer: the watering calculator gives the water for a bare-root sapling in clay.
• The season: the planting window gives the dates for a bare-root sapling in zone 5 of Nebraska.
• The trees in the opening paragraph: put the eight on a request list, and we reply with what is ready and current pricing.

Common questions

What trees are native to Iowa?

Bur oak, black walnut, Kentucky coffeetree, bitternut hickory, hackberry, basswood and pecan all grow wild in Iowa. The Iowa list shows every one we grow.

What trees are native to Nebraska?

Bur oak, the most common native oak there, grows along rivers in the eastern third, with black walnut, bitternut hickory and basswood. Ponderosa pine grows wild on the Pine Ridge, and Rocky Mountain juniper there and in the Wildcat Hills.

What are the best trees for a shelterbelt on the plains?

Eastern red cedar makes the evergreen row, and bur oak, hackberry, chokecherry and American plum fill the others. Plant bare-root seedlings in spring and keep weeds off them for three to five years.

When should I plant trees in Nebraska?

Plant bare-root seedlings in spring, before the buds swell, since fall planting of seedlings is usually not very successful there.

What native trees grow in Colorado and Wyoming?

Ponderosa pine and Rocky Mountain juniper hold the hills, and plains cottonwood with willows and boxelder lines the streams. Of ours, hackberry, chokecherry, American plum and Canada buffaloberry are wild in both.