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Heck yes we got trees in the Sandhills!

efb said:
If the tree huggers see this I'd say you were in big trouble. It is apparent that the cattle have stood under it untill they have nearly killed it. It is the last of your spotted owl habitat. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes. We will be hearing about you losing your ranch on Paul Harvey.
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Now you've kind of got me worried. :? :roll: We do still have good easy digging and ideal habitat for burrowing owls. :-)
 
That's it...an owl lives under that tree!!!!


Kinda funny tho...when ya'll see trees somewhere out in the open..like ya said it indicates that someone lives there...or has in the past.

Around here old homesites are swollowed up by trees and undergrowth. If there is no longer a house or a well or sistern(sp) visible. Bout the only way you know there was a house there is by the old crepe myrtles and sometimes wisteria vines growin unchecked in the tops of trees. Some of them are huge. But a certain indication that there was once an old homestead there.
 
JF Ranch said:
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
I have a halfway serious question fer ya'll........I've noticed that most of your trees seem to be Willow trees. Is that the only kinda trees ya have there?

Willows here grow really big..and really fast...and don't usually live all that long.
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Here's a half serious answer for ya!

In this part of the Sandhills, a tree's a tree. Ya don't care what kind it is. Other parts of the Sandhills seem to grow trees fairly easily, but nothing grows fast here in our area.

How long do trees live in most other parts of the country? I'd say a hundred year old tree here is ancient. They flourish naturally along certain streams and rivers, but otherwise most all of them were planted. The early setters came to this country only about 120 years ago. Very few that were planted then are still around today.

Willows grow naturally, usually in ditches and marshy areas. I don't know why anyone would plant a willow. I've never aged one, so I'm not sure how long they last. They are a very trashy tree but as you can see we do have some very nice specimens here & there! Soapweed & I have had fun with this thread. I hope others have found it humorous as well.
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When my great grandfather came to this country at the turn of the century, he stuck some golden willow sticks in the mud of the creek. They took off and are still alive. I'm pretty proud of them trees. Over the years they have survied several long droughts, cattle, grasshoppers, wildlife and wood peckers and wood choppers!
I have probably cut at least 2000 slips from them and planted them and have gotten about 5 or 6 to survive. They are a pretty tree, tho' kind of messy as they lose lots of branches every year.

I planted one over the top of an old septic tank, here in the yard. Some of my horses "trim" it a little. I'm not sure why they like to eat it, but I have read of the indians and mountain men feeding willow and cottonwood bark to their horses in the winter.
Anyway, I am one, who will plant some willow trees. They might not last quite as long, but they do grow fast and I just love trees. :D

And if you plant the right kind, they can last a long time. :wink:
 
Tap said:
We have a few native cottonwoods, and ONE native juniper tree. Most everything else has been planted by someone. Quite a bit of sagebrush here in places though. lol.
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ONE juniper?Interesting,our junipers grow right along our riverbanks in tangly messes, I wonder if we're calling a juniper the same thing :???:
 
Our whole place was carved out of the bush-spent too many hours picking roots to ever want to do that again.If it would of been up to me I'd of left more of the natural draws in bush for sure. I realize trees are a precious commodity down there but after chasing cows through the willows all day it is possible to hate them just a bit too. It's amazing how fast land will revert back to forest if bulldozed and just left-it doesn't take long and it's recovered. There's a budding industry up here developing of growing hybrid poplar on farmland-amazing the diverse parts of the continent that people raise cattle on.
 
And just think....I had 62 cut and chipped up that came out of the back yard!!!

So that leaves me only about 5K more probably!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Trees around here grow fast for the most part... Cottonwood, Sycamore whatever if the ground is right. The real sandy stuff they take a bit longer and are mostly black Cherry and hackberry.. I would say the trees here are in the thousands mind you but most are clustered in rows or groups...

My cows don't have any willows to chew on but god help the Mulberry tree that ends up in a pasture. If the cows don't get to it first the sheep surely will eat it into the ground.
 
Interesting post. Yesterday I went to a AGROFORESTERY meeting put on by U of W extention. Sometimes we take things for granted. Consider we don't have a fuel bill as we burn wood. I have never bought a wood fence post, and never have to worry about shade for the cattle. Years ago I remember my grandfather talk about the drought in 1934. There was no grass so they went into the woods and cut branches off the birch trees so the cattle could eat the leaves. They didn't have much hay that year so they fed their cattle what little straw they had and went into the woods to rake leaves for bedding.
Yesterday I learned about certain grasses that grow better where there is a little shade. Plant rows of trees 18 ft apart, north and south, for maximum sunlight. You can still make hay or graze inbetween the rows.
 
Mrs.Greg said:
Tap said:
We have a few native cottonwoods, and ONE native juniper tree. Most everything else has been planted by someone. Quite a bit of sagebrush here in places though. lol.
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ONE juniper?Interesting,our junipers grow right along our riverbanks in tangly messes, I wonder if we're calling a juniper the same thing :???:
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Mrs. Greg, I have been told the juniper is the more spindly tree, and it is cone shaped, where cedar has a much bigger trunk, and gets to be a taller tree. I think they are both species of cedar. Someone correct me if I am wrong. There are juniper growing in some of our badlands areas around here, and some in our forested areas.

Here is a tree that was planted at least 30 years ago on our ranch. Our soil is not the best for trees. :?

Jan-21.jpg
 
Tap, we've got ceder trees that are just like that, but I don't think it's the soil so much as the damage to the top of the tree when it was little, so now it grows more like a bush.

I have tried to trim a few that got the tops broken off and haven't had much luck, where with the elms the will just shoot up after you trim them to a central leader.

Also, they have found down in the breaks, rhat most of the ceders growing well are on an eastern or north slope. I don't think they take the hot sun as well.

I noticed down along the river at Wasta, there are huge cottonwoods dying, but at their feet are pretty good sized ceder trees that have been growing in thier shade and shelter. Maybe that whole bottom down there along I90 will be all ceder trees someday.

By the way, I use the word ceder, meaning ceder or juniper. Damned if I know one from the other. :wink:
 
We've got a few Junipers growing on the north banks around here, but they don't get too tall unless they're in a pasture we don't use much, as the bulls and cows tend to attack them, rubbing their heads and digging at them. Must be something to do with the smell that sets the animals off. I've never figured it out but they get worked up pretty good around them trees.
 
That tree was planted 30 years ago Tap? You pulling my leg? If you are telling the truth, you couldn't raise enough timber in your country in a life time to build you own casket. :lol: I wish our area was more like yours. Like NR said , trees can be a problem.
 
I'll get into this conversation. I have always wondered about the cedar tree. There are two kinds here in South Dakota and Nebraska. I have been told that they are not true cedars but are junipers. We have the Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginianna) and the Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) I believe these were both native trees here.

Where I live we have the eastern red cedar for the most part. Years ago in the 1930's and 1940's they were hard to grow. We must have learned more about them or have got better seedlings as they are planted quite regularly now with fairly good luck. Seamed they worked good when underplanting in old windbreaks I think the shade helped. Now most are planted using the black plastic mulch or weed barrier. They started better in the sandhills than in the harder soil where I live.

The cedars are somewhat losing favor as they are becoming evasive. I think if this area had been destined to be forest it would have been mostly red cedar.

The eastern red cedar develops seed in just one season but the Rocky Mountain Juniper takes two seasons, Still Johnson and Larson in South Dakots grassland Plants book say they will cross and hybridnize.

Since the Big Rock fire near Valentine, some are saying the cedar here is out of it's enviormnet, thay are saying it is a ladder tree that allowed the fire to reach to tops of the Ponderosa Pine, the pich abd resin on the pine sort of exploded and spread the fire.

For my part, I believe it was a native here. The early days cowboys and rancher have stated often in their stories that their corrals and houses were built with cedar poles and logs. They were also cut for fence posts.Lt. Warren made a trip along the Niobrara in 1857, I think he mentioned the cedar, which species I don't know.

The Indians still use cedar for their ceremonies and for smudges, They mention what they call flat cedar, it seems that differs from our red cedar here.

Interesting: When some of the early explorers in Canada developed
scurvy; they tried the Indian remedy of making tea from the leaves of the cedar. This provided the vitamin that resulted in the cure. This tree was called the tree of life, (the Arborvitae)
 
Interesting Clarence.I'm no closer in understanding in we're talking the same thing...lol.Our 'junipers" are more shrubs,not really trees,they don't grow tall,pokey,if you walk through them scratch the heck out of your legs.Greg says they stay green all year round...if we get down to pasture I'll try and get pics.Tap your land kind of looks alot like our pasture too,we have badlands but we also have LOTS of trees...too many in fact when trying to get cattle from bottom to top. Our river trees are,spruce,birch,a few pine and mostly poplar,and the juniper and silver willow,low bush shrubs.
 
Mrs.Greg said:
Tap said:
We have a few native cottonwoods, and ONE native juniper tree. Most everything else has been planted by someone. Quite a bit of sagebrush here in places though. lol.
Click to expand...
ONE juniper?Interesting,our junipers grow right along our riverbanks in tangly messes, I wonder if we're calling a juniper the same thing :???:
Click to expand...

Hope they are not salt ceder!could be a problem.
 
Nope not a salt cedar...I goggled to see if I could find what I'm looking for :shock: Any idea just how many different types of junipers there are :!: Anyway someday I'll get a picture and post it...Its times like this I really miss my dad-in-law...he knew the names of all that kind of stuff. Safe to say,our junpers are not the same as Taps. Love this site you learn so much :)
 
Red Robin, I was not kidding about the tree. It is in an area where the water table is high, and there is a huge cottonwood tree near it, but the juniper does not want to grow. There are several more near it of the same size. The pine hill areas near us are about the only places where trees grow real well.
 

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