Winter wheat perked up weeks ago, alfalfa reaches for the sky and all manner of seeds are finding a home in rows throughout Northwest Nebraska. A few tractors, however, sow plants meant to last for decades instead of a season.
The Buskirk family has been planting trees since the mid 1990s. Dean and Sonya Buskirk and their son Chad of rural Hemingford described the business – Trees Are Us – that acquired its name and became official in 2000. I visited with them while picking up recycling at the farm/Pat’s Creative recently. They even received an order of trees during the interview. It seems like people driving through the country may give little thought to how the shelterbelts originated.
Trees Are Us Welding manufactures and sells the implements: planters, mulchers and trailers to haul them; and Trees Are Us plants the trees for the Natural Resources District (NRD)/Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as well as landowners through independent contracts, including quite a few last year in the Bayard area. The number of trees planted in a season has varied wildly, with government programs and other factors, from as many as 300,000 a year over 2000-2003 to about 22,000 currently.
Chad explained that they plant whatever people ordered. Regardless of variety, everything goes in the ground bare root. Eight is the optimum number to get the job done (two tractors – one driving, three behind) though the size of the crew depends on the job site. Trees are planted before it gets too hot – April-June with May being about the best. “We have a cooler to keep trees in between planting dates,” Dean noted. “Trees need to be kept as close to dormant as you can.”
Their experienced workers know how to get the most out of the equipment with high marks of 5,500 trees and 11 ½ miles of fabric, respectively, completed in a day. Dean explained the overall demand was high enough that for 10 years the family only raised hay on their farm and rented out their row crop ground.
Dean said that building planters is “kind of what we can get done in the winter” with 13 turned out one year. “More or less it was designed for the Sandhills,” he said. “We’re planting quite a few trees because we could plant no till.”
Not many companies produce the planters and mulchers (which lay down the protective barrier for weed control and moisture retention), Chad said. “They’re not like ours.” Trees Are Us has worked extensively in the Northern Panhandle with not many local sales. However, Dean said, they have sold planters in 10 states as well as Canada. Chad hauled one to Washington State, which has been a popular destination, along with Wisconsin. In a humorous mixup, a customer from New York thought NE stood for New England. When he found out the real location he came and got it anyway.
I can think of no downside to adding hundreds of thousands of trees to our area in the past generation. The family talked about the size of the initial windrows as they have matured and the perspective of the venture looking back. Landowners break the pervasive Nebraska wind and temper erosion with trees while garnering more moisture from snow. Birds and other wildlife gain habitat with higher populations for hunters as well.
Looking ahead, Trees Are Us embraces innovation. The black mulch itself made a huge difference, Dean said, “moisture is a huge thing.” Farmers have been able to meet 80 percent survival requirements dedicated in some programs. Chad said, “As we us it (the equipment) we think of things that can be updated.”