History & Culture

History

The Nebraska National Forests & Grasslands began in 1902 as an experiment. University of Nebraska botany professor Dr. Charles E. Bessey, with the assistance of Gifford Pinchot, first Forest Service Chief, convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to set aside two treeless tracts of Nebraska sandhills as “forest reserves." Dr. Bessey’s intent was to grow trees, which would offset what some thought would be a national timber shortage from large fires, unregulated harvest, and the country’s growing appetite for wood products. Thus began a pioneering effort to plant trees in what is now the largest human-made forest in the United States.

Though the sandhills forest never met Bessey’s vision, it is important for its wildlife, aesthetic and recreational values, and as a living monument to that vision. Charles E. Bessey Tree Nursery, the oldest federal nursery, pioneered the large-scale production of tree seedlings and still produces 2.5 to 3 million per year for distribution to national forests, state, and tribal agencies in the Great Plains and West. 

The national grasslands and the native ponderosa pine forest of Nebraska’s Pine Ridge area were added to the National Forest System in the 1950’s. The nearly 1.1 million acres administered by the Nebraska National Forests & Grasslands are scattered across a large arc extending from central Nebraska west to the northern Panhandle, into southwestern South Dakota and on east to the state’s center.

Three ecosystems of the northern Great Plains are represented. 

The diversity includes the mixed grass prairies of the Buffalo Gap, Fort Pierre and Oglala National Grasslands with prairie grouse, prairie dogs, and pronghorns. The native ponderosa pine forest (Pine Ridge Ranger District) along the Pine Ridge escarpment with elk, deer and wild turkey add to the ecosystem mix. Hand-planted forests (Bessey Ranger District and Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest) within the sandhills  are unique to the National Forest System.