In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an executive order that created 30,000 acres for a pioneer forestation effort modeled after a similar, and reasonably successful, program on the Nebraska prairie.
The idea of rolling hills that were home to trees instead of grassland had been a dream in the eyes of many who invested in the New Land. It was thought that trees would invite more settlers who had a desire to make the Plains into the Eastern image they left behind. The project would also produce timber and stimulate private timber culture in the surrounding area, to meet the growing needs for lumber, fence posts, and telegraph poles. Another consideration was the anticipated influence of a forest on the climate of western Kansas. A massive planting of trees might check high winds and alleviate the dryness of the atmostphere, so that land to the east might receive a greater amount of rainfall.
A first planting of almost 100,000 pines, honey locust, osage orange, mulberry, cedar and hackberry prospered in 1906, but the following year a prairie fire destroyed all the pines and most of the broadleaf varieties. Undaunted, the project moved forward in 1908 with replanting, an an extension of the reserve, to include the entire sand hill region east of the state line. Over 300,000 acres in Finney, Kearney, Hamilton, Grant and Haskell counties were officially named the Kansas National Forest. A government office was established in Garden City, as well as a nursery where it was hoped over 300,000 seedlings would be produced annually. Planting was continued during the next several years at the rate of about 125,000 trees per year, with a concentration of broadleaf trees, supplemented by pines.
Since only about 1,000 acres were planted to trees, the rest of the land was leased for grazing, and a successful range management program was put into place. But the forestry endeavors did not succeed. After several years of trying to grow trees in what many considered a near-desert, in 1915 President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order abolishing the Kansas National Forest.
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Thanks to Lynn Boitano for contributing to this story.
Skip Mancini is a longtime contributor to High Plains Public Radio.
High Plains History is a production of High Plains Public Radio.
