The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum has launched a pilot program to help Nebraska towns grow their own community nurseries. The program provides young trees and supplies, giving local communities a chance to plant trees in public spaces as part of a long-term green space strategy.
The program was funded by a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust. The communities of Beatrice, Eustis, Valley and Crete are participating in the pilot program.
Hanna Pinneo, executive director of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, said the organization recognized a need for affordable access to supplies in a time when the cost of trees is rising. The cost to remove diseased or dead trees and to replace those trees can be prohibitive, but replanting provides shade for people and for the protection of infrastructure, while helping with things such as stormwater management.
“Especially for our small communities, they really have to decide where they’re going to invest limited funds,” Pinneo said. “When you’re spending money on removing trees, community members don’t want to spend more planting trees because they think, ‘We’re just going to have to remove this in 30 to 50 years.’ But there are a lot of reasons we want to make sure we’re replanting when those trees come down for the overall viability of our communities.”
The new nursery at Evergreen Home Cemetery in Beatrice has more than 30 young trees. Once the trees are mature, they will be planted at the cemetery, Beatrice High School, the newly constructed Beatrice Elementary School and possibly in city parks. The cemetery and high school are affiliate members of the Arboretum.
Chad Kleveland, sexton at Evergreen Home Cemetery, said they initially were interested in the program to start building a stock of trees to replace aging trees in the cemetery. The cemetery had previously worked with the Arboretum on a tree inventory of the area.
“Every year we were planting some trees, and every year we were losing trees,” Kleveland said. “We thought it made sense to be able to help the community and help ourselves at the same time.”
The inventory conducted by the Arboretum indicated many of the existing trees were similar and had been planted at about the same time. Installing a nursery offered an opportunity to enhance species diversity as diseased or dying trees had to be replaced, making their stock less vulnerable to diseases and pests taking out large numbers at the same time.
“You’ve got 120 trees all the same age and all the same kind, where if we get different trees, hopefully it will prevent that in the future,” Kleveland said.
Graham Herbst, community forester specialist with the Nebraska Forest Service and the program's coordinator, helped the communities select species to plant in their nurseries, meeting the needs of each unique environment.
“We split it up into a mixture of plants that, in each of the four cases, was appropriate for where they were,” Herbst said. “We don’t want to send trees that are just going to die because the climate or soil isn’t appropriate.”
Herbst said while these places might be able to purchase trees from a nursery retailer, the program can offer an avenue to provide a wider range of species to bolster biodiversity at a price more affordable to organizations such as local tree boards that have small budgets.
“Our intent is not to compete with private businesses and cut them out, because private nurseries are a critical component of community forests,” Herbst said. “We offer species that are underutilized and underrepresented in the nursery industry.”
Dave Eskra, a member of the cemetery board and Beatrice City Council, said he appreciated this curation because of how the thoughtful selection contributes to long-term planning for the town.
“The species selected with the help of the Statewide Arboretum and the Nebraska Forest Service will so benefit Chad and I and the entire board to grow stuff that, 50 years down the road, is still going to look good,” Eskra said.
Eskra said having support and guidance from the Arboretum and Nebraska Forest Service has been vital in getting the project off the ground locally.
“There’s nothing better than having somebody with a ton of experience telling you exactly what you need to be putting in the ground,” Eskra said.
Evergreen Home Cemetery and Beatrice High School intend to collaborate on maintaining and replanting the nursery. Colton Husa, a teacher at Beatrice High School, said he hopes it can be an educational tool for students that can also beautify the schools.
“It’s going to be great being able to not only get trees from out here, but also show students the real-world experience of how it’s done and how they keep the nursery up,” he said.
Kleveland, the cemetery sexton, said they hope to expand the nursery and plant more tree so they can have a constantly rotating and evolving nursery for Beatrice.
“It’s cool that maybe 30 years from now I could go to one of the city parks or the library and see one of these and where it ends up,” he said.
