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Eastern Red Cedar tree encroachment a growing threat to ranchers, grasslands

Delainey LaHood-Burns
/
SDPB
Eastern Red Cedar trees spreading on a ranch in Lyman County.

Heather Hammerbeck is a fourth generation rancher in South Dakota. Her family owns the Forty Bar Ranch located just south of Chamberlain where the White River empties sand from the Badlands into the Missouri, turning the water pale blue.

Nine years ago, Hammerbeck noticed dozens of juniper trees, called Eastern Red Cedars, becoming an issue on her pastures and making it hard to move livestock.

Delainey LaHood-Burns
/
SDPB
An Eastern Red Cedar tree grows on Heather Hammerbeck's family ranch near the Missouri River. The tree's name is a misnomer as it's a species of juniper.

"Day in and day out you have to try to fight your way through the trees to get cows. And all of the sudden you need dogs and all this extra time to gather cattle," said Hammerbeck. "And then once you start watching for the trees, you see how much they're expanding, how much they're sprawling."

To deal with the problem, Hammerbeck set a goal of cutting down 50 trees a day.

"I figure in that summer I cut down 5,000 trees. And I was like, 'That will make a huge difference,'" Hammerbeck said. "And at the end of the summer, when it made no difference, that's when I was like, 'OK, I'm in trouble.'"

Heather Hammerbeck removes an Eastern Red Cedar tree on her family's ranch in Lyman County.
Delainey LaHood-Burns
/
SDPB
Heather Hammerbeck removes an Eastern Red Cedar tree on one of her pastures. The trees pose a significant wildfire hazard and can reduce water surface flow and groundwater recharge in some areas.

Across south central South Dakota and other parts of the state, many ranchers and landowners face the same encroachment of trees onto their rangelands. In hard hit areas like Gregory County, Eastern Red Cedars are spreading at nearly exponential rates in hot spots.

"What it got to be for us, my husband and I, was that we did not have enough grass," said Sara Grim, who runs the Grim Ranch in Gregory County with her husband Richard. "And it was costing us to send cows different parts of the state to pasture for the summer, because we just didn't have enough grass."

Images from Paul Horsted's "South Dakota Yesterday and Today" project show the transformation of an area nine miles northeast of Bonesteel. The historic photo is estimated to be from the 1940s, the new photo was taken in October of 2024. Horsted used a pole to get a better view over the foreground trees, which are Eastern Red Cedars.
Photos from Paul Horsted's "South Dakota Yesterday and Today" project show the transformation of an area nine miles northeast of Bonesteel. The historic photo is estimated to be from the 1940s, the new photo was taken in October of 2024. Horsted used a pole to get a better view over the foreground trees, which are Eastern Red Cedars.

As they mature, Eastern Red Cedar trees form a thick canopy that suppresses grass growth below. Dense groves of Eastern Red Cedar trees can result in a total loss of grass production in heavily encroached areas.

"If we were to forge our way through these bushes right here and get down in under the cedars, it's pine needles and dirt," said Hammerbeck. "And nothing grows there."

Even in areas that aren't as hard hit as Gregory County, Eastern Red Cedar trees are causing significant impacts. John Egleston is a rancher in the White River area who is fighting tree encroachment on his land, particularly in one 280-acre pasture.

"We mapped out about 70 acres of that 280 is solid trees here in this pasture," said Egleston. "And that doesn't count all your little trees that dot the landscape."

"So as far as production, that's a quarter of the production, or potential acres anyway, of the whole pasture that's gone to cedars," he continued.

The spread of Eastern Red Cedars is part of a broader issue called woody encroachment. This is when trees and shrubs like Junipers, Western Snowberry and Smooth Sumac spread onto grassland ecosystems. It's a phenomenon that's happening across the globe, but in the Great Plains specifically, an estimated 22.4 million tons of rangeland production is lost annually to woody encroachment. That's equivalent to the forage needed to feed 4.7 million cows in a year.

Between 1990 and 2022, tree cover increased 191,925 acres in South Dakota. During the same time period, the state experienced a cumulative loss of 5,604,349 tons of rangeland production to tree encroachment.

In 2022 alone, South Dakota lost 209,671 tons of forage to tree encroachment, equal to about $21 million dollars worth of hay bales.

Figure is from USDA-NRCS Working Lands for Wildlife Framework, Great Plains Grasslands Biome: A Framework for Conservation Action.
Figure shows woodland transition in the Great Plains grasslands from 2000 to 2018. The slow-moving advancement of conifer trees is frequently called the "Green Glacier."

Grasslands are the most imperiled and least protected biomes in existence. Only 55 percent of North America's Great Plains grasslands are left intact. The two primary threats to this ecosystem are land-use conversion and woody encroachment. Recent research shows they are happening at nearly the same rate.

Historical development of Eastern Red Cedar encroachment on the plains

In South Dakota, the Eastern Red Cedar is a native tree that was historically confined to ravines, rocky bluffs and other areas on the prairie sheltered from fire. Over a century of fire suppression, a decline in grazing species diversity and tree planting by homesteaders have all corresponded with the trees spreading aggressively onto grasslands.

Photo courtesy of Paul Horsted showing the transformation of Chamberlain circa 1930 compared to May of 2025.
Photo courtesy of Paul Horsted showing the transformation of Chamberlain circa 1930 compared to May of 2025.

Eastern Red Cedar trees are sensitive to fire and prior to European settlement, naturally-occurring prairie fires and fires set by Indigenous tribes helped keep the trees at bay. Following a grassland fire, grazing species like elk, bison and pronghorn are drawn to the burn site, which can prevent woody plants from re-establishing.

"The prairies have evolved with fire, the tribes have evolved with it and using it. So you can't have one without the other," said Sheldon Fletcher, an enrolled member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and the 319 Non-Point Source Pollution and GIS Coordinator for the Lower Brule Environmental Protection Office. "And when you don't have fire anymore, this is what happens. You get a species that takes over."

As part of his role with the Environmental Protection Office, Fletcher heads up Eastern Red Cedar tree management on the Lower Brule Reservation. In a rangeland analysis report for the tribe, it's estimated that the reservation lost 4,021 acres to conifer tree coverage between 1984 and 2022.

"If you put that in context," said Fletcher, "a lot of our range units are about 4,000 acres and they can run 250 head for six months or year round. That's basically a range unit that disappeared."

In addition to decades of fire suppression, in the 1930s President Franklin Roosevelt initiated the Prairie States Forestry Project as a response to the Dust Bowl. This New Deal Program resulted in the planting of 220 million trees in shelterbelts across the Great Plains.

One of the most commonly planted shelterbelt trees is Eastern Red Cedar, and they can be a seed source for the encroachment issue happening today.

Despite the threat they pose to grasslands, Eastern Red Cedar trees do provide significant ecological and human value. There are numerous documented cultural and medicinal uses of Eastern Red Cedar trees by tribes. The tree is an important food, nesting and shelter source for wildlife and it's invaluable in shelterbelts.

"There is a place for a cedar tree," said Hammerbeck, "and that's in a shelterbelt. The trick is keeping them contained to the shelterbelts. They figure that if you've got a cedar tree, you need to be patrolling two football lengths away from that tree to keep any of the little short ones back."

A mature female Eastern Red Cedar tree can produce up to 1.5 million seeds a year. The seeds are mainly dispersed by birds within a 200-yard radius of the seed-producing tree. That 200-yard radius is equal to 26 acres of newly infected grassland. The trees grow around one to two feet a year and will continue to spread in this manner if not managed.

Economic impacts in ranching communities

Lealand Schoon is the owner of a rangeland consulting business called Fourever Grazingland, LLC, and a retired rangeland management specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). His family moved to the White River area in 2003. At the time, he didn't notice many Eastern Red Cedars around, but now frequently sees them covering parts of the local landscape.

Schoon became especially concerned about the encroachment of woody species when his family started ranching in 2006.

"As a range management specialist I calculate stocking rates," said Schoon, "and I could see that, especially with shrubs like Smooth Sumac, which cows and sheep really don't eat, and then the Eastern Red Cedar, it would take away some of our livelihood."

Lealand Schoon demonstrates how tools like the Rangeland Analysis Platform and Woody Encroachment Risk Assessment help landowners target heavily encroached areas.

According to Schoon, ranchers typically feel the impacts of Eastern Red Cedars in a pasture once there is five percent or more encroachment. A pasture that has 11 percent encroachment, for example, will lose the forage needed to graze two to eight cows.

"At the price of cows right now, that's significant," said Schoon. "That's like a $13,000 to $20,000 loss. So somebody might say, 'Well, for a 200 cow ranch [you lose] only eight cows.' But eight cows at today's calf prices is $20 grand. That's a minimum wage job in town."

While ranchers are the first to feel the financial impacts of Eastern Red Cedars, the issue creates ripple effects throughout rural economies.

"The real impact is not only going to take away grasslands from herbivores, cows, sheep, wildlife," said Schoon, "but then as a community, whether you haul hay or whether you grow grass or whether you rodeo or drive a truck moving livestock, those are all part of the livelihood within these communities."

Tom Hausmann is a landowner in Gregory County. He also has a part-time contract position with South Dakota State University Extension. Part of his responsibility with SDSU Extension is to raise awareness around Eastern Red Cedar encroachment, with the end goal of establishing more prescribed burn associations to manage the trees.

"I thought it might be interesting if realtors could give me an idea on just how much it decreases the value of land," said Hausmann. "And when I called two or three of them, there weren't any of them real specific, but they said the trees can decrease a property's value between 30 to 50 percent, depending on how many cedar trees there are."

Efforts to manage Eastern Red Cedar encroachment

There are several established methods for managing Eastern Red Cedar encroachment: prescribed burning, mechanical removal, herbicide application and introducing browsing species like goats to target the trees.

No matter the control method used, the more time trees have to establish, the more expensive they are to remove.

"When I sheared in my pasture, the easy areas up on the ridges cost me $62 an acre with government help," said Hausmann. "They paid about two-thirds of the cost. I paid one-third. By the time I got to those places that were more difficult to get to and the trees were taller, my cost went to $438 an acre. So, it's a simple matter of economics. The longer you wait, the less pasture you have, the less beef you're going to raise, and it's going to cost you more."

According to Schoon, it's important to use an integrated approach to get the best results.

"Meaning you have to use multiple tools in order to combat it. I don't think it can be just one tool," said Schoon. "But the one that we hear overwhelmingly to control Eastern Red Cedar is controlled burns. And that's because a fire will kill a cedar tree."

SDPB
A prescribed burn set during a live fire training for landowners in May 2023.

Fire is considered the most affordable and effective way to fight Eastern Red Cedar encroachment at scale. It's also one of the oldest land management tools in existence.

"Tribes know it. It's in our stories, in our ceremonies, in our songs," said Fletcher. "Science can go back and prove it on fire-scarred trees."

Mechanical removal is expensive and the heavy machinery involved can inadvertently spread seeds over freshly disturbed ground, resulting in dozens of new cedars sprouting up in the same area within a few years.

"So fire, a prescribed burn, is probably the most economical way to deal with these Eastern Red Cedars when done properly," Fletcher said. "Especially with the burn associations, because that's neighbor helping neighbor. It's not a federal agency, it's not a state agency. They're not providing funds. It's basically neighbor helping neighbor take care of the land and being good land stewards."

Prescribed burn associations: A grassroots solution to one of the grassland's greatest threats

To mitigate Eastern Red Cedar encroachment, several organizations called prescribed burn associations, or PBAs, have formed in South Dakota.

PBAs are typically landowner-led and involve volunteers working together to conduct burns and build a fire culture in their community. This means shifting people's perspectives from viewing fire fearfully to seeing it as a land management tool.

"Fire is a four letter word here, which I understand," said Egleston. "Somebody starts a prescribed burn, it burns up 10,000 acres. That's my whole place. Insurance isn't going to make it right. And so it's got to be done carefully."

The prescribed burn associations in South Dakota include the newly-formed River Breaks Prescribed Burn Association, which is a tribal-county partnership made up of volunteers in Lower Brule and Lyman County. They conduct burns between the township of Bull Creek up to the northern boundary of the Lower Brule Reservation.

There's also the Southeast Dakota Prescribed Burn Association, which operates in Bon Homme, Yankton and Clay counties, as well as southern Hutchinson and Turner Counties.

One of the most established PBAs in the state is the Mid-Missouri River Prescribed Burn Association, or MMRPBA. MMRPBA runs out of Gregory County. It was spearheaded by Dave Steffen, a retired NRCS employee, who approached Grim and asked, "What are we going to do about the Green Glacier?"

"Dave and I started looking at maps of the cedar encroachment and sent out a survey to Gregory County landowners," said Grim. "And then with help from our neighbors in the burn associations in Nebraska, the Mid-Missouri River Prescribed Burn Association was born."

Since its inception in 2016, the MMRPBA has successfully burned 8,980 acres and conducted 25 prescribed burns. This includes three burns on the Grim Ranch, where in some areas the Grims had gone from being able to graze ten cows to only three.

"We have reclaimed a lot in what we call our river country, our river pasture," said Grim. "We've sheared. We have burned. We feel like we're reclaiming our grass. We're real happy with it."

"And we're proving to our neighbors and friends that, 'Yes, we can safely do this, and it's good for the area,'" Grim continued. "It's good for the land and it's bringing back our grasslands. We want our grasslands back."

Issues with burning on state ground along the Missouri River

In South Dakota, some of the heaviest Eastern Red Cedar encroachment travels up the Missouri River through Gregory and Lyman Counties toward I-90. A unique feature of this landscape is the Title VI state land that borders areas of the Missouri.

Title VI ground was previously under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers, but was transferred to the state of South Dakota and is now managed by the Department of Game, Fish & Parks. Landowners who have property adjoining Title VI ground frequently lease it from the state.

"We manage the Title VI ground the exact same way we manage our own ground," said Hammerbeck, whose family ranch leases Title VI ground. "We try to take as good of care of it as we do our own."

Delainey LaHood-Burns
/
SDPB
The area where segments of Title VI land, owned by the State of South Dakota and managed by Game, Fish and Parks, separates Heather Hammerbeck's family ranch from the Missouri River.

In 2019, the Mid-Missouri River Prescribed Burn Association formed a Memorandum of Agreement, or MOA, with Game, Fish & Parks allowing them to burn across state ground and use the Missouri River as a fire break. However, in the spring of 2024, the MOA was revoked, causing the burn association to halt nearly all prescribed burns along the Missouri.

The MMRPBA said the ability to burn on Title VI land is required because the state and private ground are impractical to separate in many places. Due to the steep and rough nature of the land, it's also too dangerous to build a fire break between them.

"There's really no way to differentiate the two burn units on the ground," said Hammerbeck, who is also a director for the MMRPBA. "It would be so unsafe to try to hold a fire from crossing the state ground when it could just go across the state ground to the water."

Steep Pierre shale hogbacks dominate the area where Title VI state ground meets Heather Hammerbeck's ranch land near the Missouri River in Lyman County.
Delainey LaHood-Burns
/
SDPB
Rugged terrain where Title VI state ground meets Heather Hammerbeck's family ranch near the Missouri River in Lyman County. While too distant to see in the photo, there's a yellow sign on top of one of the ridges demarcating Game, Fish & Parks Title VI land from the private property.

Additionally, the MMRPBA frequently incorporates the Missouri River as a contingency firebreak in its burn plans, even for burn units that aren't directly adjacent to Title VI ground or the water.

"The issue that we're talking about is just on state ground," said Hammerbeck. "It just so happens that it is really important, strategic ground. Because it's what separates the private ground from one of the biggest firebreaks in North America."

 A slumping H-brace and a few slid-out steel posts are all that remain of a fence installed to mark the boundary between Heather Hammerbeck's family ranch and Title VI land. "If you can't fence it or walk along it, how could you possibly build a firebreak?" said Hammerbeck. "There's really no physical way to do it. Even if you had infinite amounts of money. And one of the beauties of fire is it is one of the most cost-effective ways to fight this encroachment problem."
Delainey LaHood-Burns
/
SDPB
A slumping H-brace and a few slid-out steel posts are all that remain of a fence installed to mark the boundary between Heather Hammerbeck's family ranch and Title VI land. "If you can't fence it or walk along it, how could you possibly build a firebreak?" said Hammerbeck. "There's really no physical way to do it. Even if you had infinite amounts of money. And one of the beauties of fire is it is one of the most cost-effective ways to fight this encroachment problem."

Since the MOA was revoked, the Mid-Missouri River Prescribed Burn Association has held off burning approximately 20,000 acres they originally planned to hit during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Due to the narrow weather conditions and circumstances required for a burn, PBAs don't always accomplish all the fires they intend to. However, in context, 20,000 acres is close to the amount of tree cover increase Gregory County has experienced since 1990.

Any fire-related activities on Game, Fish & Parks land falls under the jurisdiction of South Dakota Wildland Fire and the Department of Public Safety, or DPS. According to DPS, the Memorandum of Agreement was revoked because it was not compliant with state statue.

Currently, the Mid-Missouri River Prescribed Burn Association and the state agencies involved are working on a solution to the issue.

"DPS and GFP are committed to finding appropriate and legal solutions to address the encroachment of the Eastern Red Cedar," the Department of Public Safety said in a statement to SDPB.

Meanwhile, time is ticking as Eastern Red Cedar trees continue to transform thousands of acres of rangeland in South Dakota.

Family legacies at risk

For many cattle and livestock producers in South Dakota, ranching is a legacy passed down through generations.

"My learning about the place was more just tagging along with my dad. Kind of a hands on apprenticeship is how I got started here," said Hammerbeck.

Delainey LaHood-Burns
/
SDPB
Heather Hammerbeck with her daughter on the Forty Bar Ranch in Lyman County.

"And then we've got the next generation coming along, dealing with ranching," she continued.

If left unmanaged, Eastern Red Cedar tree encroachment threatens the productivity and sustainability of ranching operations that are many decades in the making.

"When I leave the world, I'd like to have something that my kids could say, 'Hey, dad, you did a great job," said Hausmann. "'Now maybe we can't manage it. We can't handle it. So maybe we have to get rid of whatever it might be.' But at least they have something of value that they can make a choice with."

Eastern Red Cedar tree encroachment is still in it's early stages in many parts of the state. Individuals engaged with the issue say South Dakota has a chance to get ahead of the problem before it becomes more expensive and difficult to solve.

"It's a problem that's just going to get worse and worse. And generally, problems don't get better by ignoring them. And so there will come a point where it'll just be a forest," said Egleston. "And a forest doesn't feed very many cows."

"It's going to be somewhat painful economically to take care of it now," he continued. "But if you don't take care of it now, my kids are going to have to light this whole country on fire to get rid of the trees, or clear cut it or whatever. That's going to be probably not worth the expense."

As Eastern Red Cedars spread, research shows species like grassland birds transition to woodland populations. Grassland birds are disappearing faster than any other avian group. According to a 2019 study, they've declined more than 50 percent in the last 50 years. The repercussions of this and the strain on other prairie wildlife is a concern for hunting communities and many others that rely on grassland ecosystems.

"This just isn't a rancher problem and this just isn't a reservation problem. And it just isn't some federal agency's problem," said Fletcher. "This is all of our problem."

"Because if we don't do anything, we're going to lose the plains, the grasslands, and we can't afford to do that," he continued. "There's just too much diversity, too much life in these grasslands."

According to Schoon, creating more awareness and appreciation for the prairie is a vital piece of solving the issue, since "there's still a component of society that sees grasslands as kind of a wasteland."

"The most needed thing in South Dakota — and probably around the world," said Schoon, "is for people who aren't in agriculture and people who aren't surrounded by these communities that survive on the open grasslands to understand how valuable, how important grasslands are."

Delainey LaHood-Burns is a multimedia producer at SDPB and associate producer for "South Dakota Focus."