“Wouldn’t it be awesome if we planted a new forest in Nebraska?”

Wouldn’t it be awesome if we planted a new forest in Nebraska?

This question, asked in the middle of a conversation between landscapers, was the beginning of what would become a new nonprofit group: the American Reforestation Initiative.

One of those landscapers was Bellevue native Alan Weiss. Weiss owns Papio Valley Nursery, located east of 48th Street between Cornhusker Road and Highway 370. Weiss founded Papio Valley Nursery in 1998 and has been steadily growing his wholesale business for nearly 25 years. In the meantime, he also started a second business called Emergen-Tree Health Services, a tree pest and disease treatment company.

Despite the demands of overseeing two full-time businesses, Weiss partnered with Robert Grauman, owner of Native Landscape and Design in Omaha. Together, they made the American Reforestation Initiative a reality. The goal is very straightforward – they want to plant forests in Nebraska. However, down the road, they would love to see the initiative take off nationally, embraced by every region in the country.

In a recent interview, Weiss was asked where the name ‘American Reforestation Initiative’ came from. “I started thinking about Nebraska names but thought that might be too regional if this took off and got bigger,” Weiss recalled. “That’s how the name came about and why we didn’t call it the Bellevue or Nebraska Reforestation Initiative.”

For an idea this big, the group needs land. That’s why some of the first calls made were to local Natural Resource Districts to see what land they had that could be open to reforestation. Weiss initially spoke with NRDs north and south of the Omaha-Metro. “The reason being is that they have huge tracks of land along the Missouri River,” Weiss said. “They used to be completely forested a long time ago. They had thousands of acres that could be reforested – which presented a good opportunity.”

So, how many trees does one need to have in a forest? Is there a set amount? Weiss and his team discussed that question thoroughly, as it came up pretty early in their conversations. They called several state foresters that work at UNL, but no one could point them to an exact answer.

Working toward larger 500-1,000 tree projects, they have completed some smaller projects along the way. The first was planting fifty trees on some NRD property. They also have sponsored a few tree giveaway events. In the spring of 2021, they gave away 100 trees at an event at Seymour Smith Park. Last fall, they did the same at Swanson Park in Bellevue. Another tree giveaway in North Omaha is currently in the planning stages.

As they continue to make plans toward planting larger groups of trees, Weiss mentioned some of the hardships of growing a forest and getting it to thrive. Managing wildlife is particularly difficult. Weiss shared, “Rabbits are the worst – they mow them down. We’re talking to other tree-planting organizations to see how they handle it. Sometimes it’s just numbers – you overwhelm them with plants, some take off, and some don’t. When you do real, true reforestation, you have a lot of losses because you can’t irrigate them; you can’t be there babysitting all of them.”

When talking about the five-year plan, Weiss said they want to have a real forest planted by then. They are working with John Winkler of the Papio Missouri Natural Resource District. Winkler showed Weiss an area where the Platte River and Missouri River meet. Decades ago, it was home to a fertilizer company. When there were breaks in producing fertilizer, the company would harvest trees on the 50-60 acre property. “The area never really reforested again, and it floods a little bit,” Weiss mentioned. “We were looking at it with them, and we might have an opportunity to reforest that area. There are some species of tree we could plant that would be somewhat flood-resistant and could handle being underwater for a little while if that area would flood again.”

If you are interested in volunteering with or donating to the American Reforestation Initiative, you can reach them by calling (402) 510-4418 or by eMailing [email protected]. You can find more information on their website at: https://americanreforest.org/