The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s experience with shelterbelts 
in the Great Plains has yielded a great deal of information about 
screen plantings in general. The shelterbelt program revealed some 
things that need to be considered before the actual planting if the 
screen is to be fully successful. (1) The plant materials selected 
should grow rapidly to the size required. (2) Their full height and 
useful life span should be appropriate for the purpose. (3) Ever- 
greens should be included in the planting when winter screening is 
important. (4) Screen species should be chosen for foliage density, 
crown shape, and retention of lower branches. Often all such char- 
acteristics are best combined in multiple-row plantings. These 
usually consist of one or more rows of a fast-starting hardwood and 
a row or two of conifers to improve winter screening and to help 
maintain density near the ground. In vegetatively propagated trees 
like poplar, it is possible to select species with narrow crowns and 
then use cuttings from a single, well-formed tree to improve the 
screen’s uniformity. 
F—495414, 495406 
This strip-mined area once looked . . . something like this. 
38 
SCS—SD600 
A former dustbowl area. 
Species in a screen planting should be selected for beauty as well as 
use. Attractive cedars and spruces are available in many parts of the 
country, including the Great Plains. Rows of plants for wildlife food 
and cover can usually be included, with benefit to the appearance as 
well as the usefulness of the screen. 
Multiple-row screens of mixed species need continuing care to 
maintain their effectiveness. Usually, some of the hardwood trees 
will have to be removed to favor and keep healthy the slower-growing 
evergreens. Sometimes the screen loses its effectiveness close to the 
ground because branches and sprouts are destroyed by natural prun- 
ing or grazing. Thinning the hardwood rows generally stimulates 
sprouting on the stumps and new branching on the trunks of the 
remaining trees, thus thickening the lower levels of the screen. 
In the drier areas of the Great Plains, and in other dry areas, 
there are limits to the use of tree plantings of any kind except near 
water. But where highways cross the streams there is an opportunity 
to plant trees for shade for the benefit of the traveling public. Native 
species that can grow along the watercourse are often the best choice. 
